UBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 




Ivet our Mottoes be : Happy Homes and the Golden Rule. 

Sincerely, 

GEO. W. BRYAN. 



THE LURE OF THE PAST 
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 



By 
GEORGE V/. BRYAN 



HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE OBSERVATIONS 

AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE PAST 

PRESENT AND FUTURE 



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LOS ANGELES 

E. G. NEWTON COMPANY. PRINTERS 

1911 



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Copyright, 19 H, by Qeo. W. Bryan 



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NO.f 




MISS BKRTHA BRYAN. 



WHO HAS BEEN MY INSPIRATION WHILE WRITING. MY 

COMPANION WHILE TRAVELING. AND MY PARTNER 

IN ALL MATERIAL THINGS, THIS BOOK IS MOST 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



THE LURE OF THE PAST 
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 



THE LURE OF THE PAST 
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 



This narrative of incidents might have been written 
about other famihes who crossed the plains in the fifties, 
but of the many who made the trip, a very few stayed to 
develop the vast resources of the state of California. Of 
those who stayed, only a few are left to tell their ex- 
perience of pioneer life, and they have lived more than 
four score years and will soon join those who have gone 
before. 

This story as related to me by one of these pioneers 
begins in Kentucky, in the year 1845 and ends in Califor- 
nia, in the year 1911, sixty-six years, two generations, 
twice the average life of man. There have been many 
changes in that time. Young people of the present, time 
can hardly realize the hardships, the privations, the ob- 
stacles encountered and overcome by their ancestors sixty 
years or more ago. Then I ask you to go with me on this 
pilgrimage, that we may share together the joys and 
sorrows, the sunshine and shadow that make and mar 
the life of every family. 

Go with me in fancy and imagine you are standing on 
a high hill which extends from Cairo on the west to 
Ashland, Kentucky, on the east, a distance of six hundred 
miles or more. This hill is not continuous, but broken 
only where some smaller river empties its water into 
and becomes a part of the great Ohio river. The month 
is October, and the year is 1845. As we stand on this 



10 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

Ohio river hill and look north, we see the southern 
border of the state of Ohio. The hills are covered with 
forests, with now and then a farm house and a space of 
cleared land. The foliage in this month is beautifully 
tinted with red, brown, orange and green. The air is 
filled with a golden mist. At the base of the river hill 
on the Ohio side nestles the city of New Richmond. We 
see the smoke rising from a large distillery and a few 
factories. Casting our vision east or west we see the 
waters of the beautiful Ohio river in its serpentine course 
swiftly and surely going to swell the waters of the great 
father of them all, and while we stand gazing at nature's 
handiwork, let us not forget that we are in a village, where 
a few hundred people live. The houses are built on either 
side of the highway for a mile or more ; a few stores, a 
blacksmith shop, a church, post office and school house 
— just like any other village except the location — being- 
situated on the river hill, presenting a grander view to 
look upon and a landscape beautiful beyond description. 
October 21, 1845 was a beautiful day. The sky was 
clear, but you could gaze at the sun through that Indian 
Summer haze that never fails to come in the month of 
October in the middle west, and that great body which is 
the source of heat and light to our planet seems like a 
ball of fire hung in illimitable space. To my mind, 
October is the month among the twelve that most vividly 
shows the analogy of the seasons to human life from the 
days of childhood to that of old age. The summer is ended, 
the crops are garnered and preparations are being made 
for the coming winter. Nature, creative energy of the 
material universe, with the aid of man has done her part in 
furnishing the material blessings to mankind and is now 
preparing for a season of rest whereby the lost energy 
may be recovered and when spring time comes the vital- 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 11 

izing power of Mother Earth will assert itself and joy and 
gladness will reign supreme. 

So is life, in the spring time life seems one perpetual 
round of pleasure and happiness. Youth and young man- 
hood assert their exclusive or peculiar privilege and look 
forward to the summer of life, with a longing born of 
impatience. What marvelous achievements are in store 
for them, their ideals are the highest conception of per- 
fection in all created things and the privilege is theirs to 
obtain them and use them as their own. And now comes 
the summer of life, the reality. How few measure up to 
the standard of their spring time ambitions. 

''Life is like a mighty river 
Rolling on from day to day, 
Men like vessels launched upon it 
Sometimes wrecked and cast away." 

Not always or necessarily so ; there is no danger if the 
Divine Master be the pilot. He will guide the vessel 
along the seductive channel of life into the haven of rest. 
Good deeds, faith in the pilot and the Golden Rule are 
the helmsmen that will aid the pilot in bringing the vessel 
into the harbor. It may have been wrecked, but never 
cast away, if these principles have been strictly adhered 
to. And at the end of the hurry and bustle of life, when 
the autumn of quiet begins to steal over one's being and 
the hair is tinged with gray and the step is less buoyant 
and the eyes have grown dim, these are only harbingers 
of the inevitable change from the Summer to the Autumn 
of life. But how thankful we should be for this oppor- 
tunity to examine ourselves and if possible make amends 
for our short-comings. 

When we look back over our Summer of life and 



12 THE I.URK OF THE PAST 

see the mistakes we have made, if our Hfe has been a 
success as the world sees it, are we satisfied? If God 
has given us an abundance of this world's goods, have 
we used them for His glory? If He has given us health 
and happiness, have we fully appreciated them and given 
thanks for the blessings? Soon the Winter of life in 
all its fullness will be ours with its joys, if we are con- 
scious of the fact that our lives have been well spent, 
but with its sorrows when we realize that we have lived 
on the husks as did the prodigal son. 

Happy must be the person who from the Winter of 
life can contemplate the past with the thought that, day 
by day the best had been done, according to the light 
that had been given and who can realize that if it were 
possible to live this earthly life over again it could not be 
different from what it had been. Surely there is nothing 
more to wish for in this world than that at the end of the 
journey there will be peace and rest. 

On a sultry day in July, a young man of perhaps 
eighteen years old was walking slowly along a country 
road toward the river, which could be seen a few miles 
away, from the higher elevations in the road. He was a 
sturdy fellow, his broad shoulders fully developed and 
well proportioned body showed physical strength. His 
eyes were cast down, but that broad brow and clean cut 
face showed mental power. His personality showed he 
was a lad of sensitive feeling but inflexible will. One of 
those who, wherever found will always be on the side 
of right and justice. He carried a bundle in which was 
contained all he possessed of this world's goods, a change 
of clothing. He looked neither to the right nor left. His 
very soul was bowed, not with shame but with sorrow, 
for he had said goodbye to that mother he loved so well. 
He was leaving the home of his childhood, because he 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 13 

could not live in peace with his father. Some one had 
said and whether true or not, I will let you be the judge : 
"There is a sadness in youth into which the old cannot 
enter. It seems unreal and causeless. But it is even 
more bitter and burdensome than the sadness of age. 
There is a sting of resentment in it, a fever of angry 
surprise that the world should so soon be a disappoint- 
ment, and life so early take on the look of failure. It has 
little reason in it, perhaps, but it has all the more weari- 
ness and gloom, because the youth who is oppressed 
by it feels dimly that it is an unnatural thing that he 
should be tired of living before he has fairly begun to 
live." Not so with this young man, the world was be- 
fore him, there was no sadness in his heart because he 
thought of failure, but a feeling of joy and gladness that 
he had launched out on the sea of life to fight the waves 
of privation and poverty and bye and bye enter the harbor 
of success and happiness. 

He quickened his steps that he might reach the river 
before the day was gone, and already the shadows had 
begun to lengthen, showing plainly that the afternoon 
was passing. When he reached the river, he tied two 
pieces of timber together with bark taken from a hickory 
shrub, — on this raft he placed his clothing and pushed it 
to the opposite side while he swam behind it. He reached 
an uncle's home, who lived a few miles from the river, 
a short time after night had fallen. He told his uncle 
he had left home never to return and that he wanted 
work. His uncle told him he had a field of oats that were 
ready to cut and that he would give him two dollars and 
fifty cents for the work. When this job was done he 
received his first wages as a hired hand. A few days 
later, he hired to two Quaker brothers who owned a farm 



14 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

and a mill. The brothers liked him so well and treated 
him so kindly that he worked for them several years. 

The young man saved his money, he had no bad habits, 
did not use tobacco in any form, did not drink intoxicants 
or play cards. He was a model young man. He owned 
a splendid saddle horse as that was before the day of 
buggies and automobiles. He wore good clothes and his 
moral excellence, his strength of character, his upright- 
ness, his personality were the charms that gave him 
ready admittance into the best society. 

When he was twenty-three years old he became ac- 
quainted with a young lady who lived in a village six or 
seven miles from where he worked. She was charming, 
intelligent and refined. She was twenty years old, her 
face and form were beautiful and her character was un- 
questioned. Her parents were well-to-do, in fact among 
the wealthy families of the village or surrounding coun- 
try; they were above the average. The young man 
thought he was highly favored when he was permitted 
to call at the young lady's home to take her to places 
of social amusement or to church, for she was a member 
of the village church and seldom failed to attend the 
services. 

Time passed, the young man was very happy, and the 
young lady seemed glad and encouraged his attentions. 
But the time had come when he must know his fate. He 
had made up his mind he would ask this young lady, 
to him the fairest of them all, to go with him on life's 
pilgrimage, that they might have joy and sorrow together, 
that success or failure should be theirs in common, that 
he would ask her to walk side by side with him as he 
fought the great battle of life. No doubt came into his 
mind what the answer would be when the momentous 
question was asked. But, strange to say, when he told 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 15 

her of his love and asked her to be his wife, she said, "No, 
I cannot." She never forgot the look of anguish and pain 
that swept over his face. She said, "For two years, as 
you know, I kept company with a young man, one whom 
I admired very much. I thought he was a good man, but 
I was mistaken, he went to the bad. I esteem you highly 
and appreciate your love for and interest in me, and yet 
I must say no to your proposal." The young man went 
out from her presence, crushed and bowed as he was, 
there was no vindictive spirit manifest. He returned 
home and worked harder, a sure panacea for a disturbed 
mind. As the days and weeks passed by, the young lady 
would often wonder whether she had done the right thing 
in refusing the offer that had been made by a man who 
was worthy of her love just because some other man 
had gone wrong. 

Three months had passed, no token or sign of recon- 
ciliation ; they had not met since that memorable evening. 
One Sunday morning he mounted his saddle horse and 
rode along the highway not caring which way he went. 
He gave the horse the rein, while his mind was busy in 
reverie or meditation of what had taken place in his life 
in the past year. He felt lonesome and forsaken, the one 
for whom he would have given his life had rejected him 
— why stay here longer, he would go West and try to 
forget the one who had caused so much joy and sorrow. 
"Hello," some one said, "where are you going this morn- 
ing?" He looked up and saw that he was entering the 
village. In answer to his friend's question, he said : "I 
am out for a morning ride." "Well," his friend said: 
"there is preaching at the church this morning, you had 
better go." 

"All right, I believe I will," the young man replied. 

After the service, while he was standing in front of 



16 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

the church some one touched him on the arm and said in 
a low sweet voice: "Let us take a walk, father will take 
care of your horse." They strolled through the woodland, 
under and in the shade of the spreading branches of the 
oak, the beech and maple on this glad Sabbath day. The 
birds were singing their sweetest summer songs, the 
squirrel was jumping from bough to bough and the tiny 
chipmunk sat on its haunches at the root of a tree and 
nibbled at the nut it held in its paws. Overhead through 
the rifts in the dense foliage could be seen the fleecy 
cloud floating lazily between earth and the dome-shaped 
canopy of the deepest blue ; a hawk sailed in the far 
distance, never a motion of its outstretched wings could 
be seen but ever alert for its prey beneath, it gave no heed 
to time. The busy bee flitted from flower to flower re- 
gardless of the seventh day commandment. Nature was 
busy, but outside this woodland there was a venerable 
silence on the world, and as these young people strolled 
and talked, nature with its blandishments was forgotten. 
An ideal place for reconciled lovers, and after their stroll 
they sat on the trunk of a fallen tree 'neatli the spreading 
branches of the giant elm tree, whose dense foliage per- 
mitted no ray of sunshine to percolate and dazzle the eye 
as the gentle breeze swept tranquilly over the woodland 
green. The drone of the bee, the song of the bird, the 
sweet perfume of the wild flowers wafted on the mid- 
summer air was lost to them, for they were planning for 
the future, the past was forgotten, for the present hour 
was more than the months they had been separated. 

It is a pleasure to think of young people as sometime 
being happy in a home of their own and all that home 
life means. Some there are who through youth and on to 
old age are toiling always, no limit to their endurance and 
no respite from a strenuous life. They build a home. 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 17 

which those who come after them must inhabit, but their 
labor is not in vain, the example of the singleness of pur- 
pose in life has shown their weakness, the real and 
genuine happiness that ought to have been theirs is lost, 
because they lived alone. 

These young people planned better than they knew, 
a long and eventful life was before them, the unhappy 
days of the past were overshadowed by the joys of the 
present and the probable happiness of the future as they 
should journey hand in hand up the pathway of life to the 
summit and then quietly down to the valley of old age 
and to rest. Slowly and happily they wended their way 
to the home of the young lady, where on that quiet and 
holy Sabbath day, they sought and received the sanction 
of her parents to their betrothal. 

On that beautiful twenty-first day of October, in the 
year eighteen hundred and forty-five, at the pleasant home 
of her parents, Mary Gregg Herndon placed her hand in 
that of William Evermont Bryan and the minister of her 
own church pronounced the beautiful ceremony that made 
them husband and wife. They had a bright future before 
them ; to them would come, as they have to all others, the 
joys and sorrows, the privations and success of life, but 
why dwell on these, the future would take care of itself, 
the present is the auspicious time in which to live. 

For several years these young people lived on a farm, 
a few miles from Carthage. In 1850 they bought a half 
interest in a general store in the village to which place 
they moved to make their future home. But the partner 
in the store was not the kind of man he ought to have 
been, and while Mr. Bryan was away boating on the Ohio 
river from New Richmond to Cincinnati, the store proved 
a losing investment. In the winter of 1853, they made up 
their minds to go to Missouri and cast their lot with the 



18 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

people of the farther West. However in those seven 
years they had by dint of hard v^ork and economy made 
and saved considerable money. They converted all their 
interests into cash, and had more than they cared to take 
with them, so a goodly sum was deposited in a bank at 
Newport, Kentucky, to be used in the future as they 
deemed advisable, but, alas ! in a few months the door of 
the bank closed for repairs and never opened, and others 
enjoyed the benefit of their deposit. 

How sad it is to leave the home of childhood, of youth 
and young manhood to go out into the world to dwell 
among strangers. If it is sad for the man, it is doubly so 
for the woman, since for the vast majority of them the 
woman's home is her world, and to give up a pleasant 
home and sever the ties that bind one to pleasant associa- 
tions is a trial that makes the bravest grow faint. On 
March 15, 1853, this family bade farewell to their relatives 
and friends and embarked on a steamboat at Cincinnati 
for St. Louis, little dreaming how long and how far they 
would travel and what privations they would endure be- 
fore they had a home again as pleasant as the one they had 
left. 

They took with them a team of fine horses, a wagon, 
some household goods and a family of four children, two 
sons and two daughters, the youngest daughter being at 
this time three months old. At St. Louis, they added to 
their stock some agricultural implements with which to 
farm after they reached their destination. After staying 
at St. Louis for a few days they took a boat for St. Joseph, 
Missouri, a distance of over four hundred miles up the 
Missouri river. This was a slow and tedious trip for 
the channel is ever changing, the water is muddy and 
the current is swift, but they reached the port in due 
time. They stopped with a cousin, Hunt Bryan, who 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 19 

had been living here for a few years. While there, they 
received a letter from two brothers, N. B. and J. S. Bryan, 
who had gone to California the year before, urging them 
to cross the plains to the Eldorado of the West. I have no 
doubt when this family thought of the pleasant home a 
thousand miles east of them, their eyes grew dim with 
tears and their hearts were heavy and sad, but they were 
young and brave. When they thought of the future and 
all its possibilities, that they had each other and their 
children, the clouds of discontent w^ould vanish and peace 
and quiet would fill their souls and reign supreme. And 
yet it was an immense undertaking, four little children 
with no protection between the sky and earth to keep oft 
the pitiless storm, except a covering of canvas. Two 
thousand miles to the West ; vast plains and lofty moun- 
tains whose peaks pierce the clouds fourteen thousand 
feet above the sea level, where the eternal snow never 
melts, through storms perhaps of hail and rain and wind ; 
across swirling rivers through fertile valleys, across burn- 
ing deserts, all these must be met and overcome before 
their journey ended. When they thought of the privations 
and of the hardships with which they would have to con- 
tend, it was enough to make the heart grow faint, but 
what did this young wife and mother say when her hus- 
band asked her if they should go on or stay in Missouri? 
Like Ruth of old, she said : ''Where thou goest, I will go. 
Thy God shall be my God. Where thou diest, I will 
die and there will I be buried." And the preparations for 
the westward journey began. 

They bought four yoke of oxen and all the provisions 
they could haul, consisting of bacon, beans, flour, sugar. 
coffee, rice, hard tack and a cooking outfit such as campers 
usually use and bedding enough to make them comfort- 
able. Disposing of their household goods and leaving 



20 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

their farming implements with a dealer in that kind of 
goods, and for which they never received a penny, they 
left St. Joseph about the 15th of April for Ft. Kearney, 
a hundred miles or more up the Platte river. When they 
reached this point, they had trouble in crossing the river, 
but by the use of pike poles to propel the boat, they finally 
got across. The caravan consisted of six men, three 
women, six children, six head of horses, eight yoke of 
oxen and three wagons ; one of the wagons was used for 
the women and children to sleep in, the others for haul- 
ing supplies. When they first started, they used tents, 
but found the ground too cold and damp, causing some 
chills and fever, so the tents were abandoned. 

AVhen they left Fort Kearney, they followed what was 
known as the Mormon trace, up the Platte river. After 
several days' travel on the plains they had gone into 
camp for the night when one of the worst storms came 
up that they had ever seen or dreamed of, rain, hail and 
wind which raged for hours, blowing the covers off the 
wagons, soaking their clothing through and through, the 
hail cutting the hands of the men while they tried to 
hold the covers on the wagons. The stock were stam- 
peded and half of the next day was spent in getting 
them into camp. A sad experience to begin with ! This 
emigrant train is now going up the Platte river and for 
many miles they will pass closely along the south bank. 
Broad plains are the principal features, skirted in places 
with low abrupt hills. 

A brief description of the river seems necessary at this 
point, as its source is in the Rocky Mountains and is 
confluent with the Missouri river, a few miles south of 
Omaha. The Platte is a treacherous river, the channel 
is continually changing, caused by the vast quantities of 
sand which are continually floating down its muddy tide. 





i 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 21 

The sand is also treacherous, and woe to the unlucky 
emigrants who attempted to cross this stream before they 
became acquainted with the fords. The average width of 
the river, from where it empties into the Missouri to the 
junction of the North and South forks, is about three- 
quarters of a mile. But the river must be crossed by 
the emigrants. In crossing the river, should the wagons 
come to a stop, down they sank in the yielding quick- 
sand until they were imbedded so firmly that it required 
more than double the original force to pull them out of 
the sandy bed. Some of the men would be in the water 
for hours to keep their teams moving and yet there was 
a fascination about this mode of traveling, and in a way 
it was enjoyable. 

When the feed for the stock was plentiful, the emi- 
grants would travel but a short distance in a day; if it 
was scarce, they would make longer drives. There were 
plenty of buffalo on the plains. Indians would come to 
the camps and beg for food ; often they would be refused, 
for the emigrants must take care of their store of provi- 
sions, for there were no supplies to be had on the way. 

About two weeks after leaving Fort Kearney, on ac- 
count of a misunderstanding, Mr. Bryan and family left 
the train of a Mr. Burril, who did not prove congenial, 
and joined the train of Mr. Kimbal from Illinois. The 
latter was a man who had made three trips across the 
plains before and who proved to be a perfect gentleman. 
He was taking across the plains about twenty milch cows, 
and the milk was a great help and satisfaction to the 
children as well as the older ones. And now our emi- 
grants are fully launched on this broad thoroughfare 
with the first rays of the morning sun piercing the rear of 
their prairie schooners, and as he sank below the western 



22 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

horizon, the last tint of light was thrown into the front, 
to be repeated day after day and week after week ever 
westward. 

There was an almost unbroken train at times of emi- 
grant wagons. Some would be met coming back, dis- 
couraged and homesick. These were the days and these 
plains the place that tried men's mettle; there was dan- 
ger between civilization and the land of their desires. 
There was no trouble to find the road across the plains, 
for the sign-marks were the bleached skulls of cattle that 
had perished the few years previous, and many mounds 
could be seen where some poor emigrant, overcome by 
sickness the year before, laid down here and gave up the 
fainting spirit to Him who gave it, or perhaps gave up 
his life while defending his wife and children from the 
savage Indians, who attacked the train in the gray dawn 
or darker night. This trail lead from old Fort Kearney 
on the Missouri river to Newport Kearney on the Platte, 
through Nebraska to Fort Laramie in Wyoming, then to 
Fort Steele and on to Salt Lake City in Utah. At Fort 
Steele, the Mormon trail leads to the southwest, and the 
Lewis and Clark trail to the northwest. Independence 
rock and the Devil's gate are close together. Some say 
that Lewis and Clark passed through Devil's Canyon in 
canoes, but Mrs. Bryan says it would be impossible to 
go through and come out alive. She climbed to the sum- 
mit of the gate and looked down. A sight greeted her 
eyes never to be forgotten. The channel was narrow and 
the water went dashing, tumbling and churning itself 
into foam against the jagged rocks, so that a canoe would 
be dashed to splinters in a short time. 

Crossing the mountains from the foothills at Fort 
Laramie is not a difficult task. You would hardly know 
or realize the fact except by the rough and rocky road 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 23 

compared with the plains. On leaving Salt Lake City, 
the trail was on the east shore of Salt Lake to the north 
end of the lake, then southwest to the twenty-eight mile 
desert in Nevada. At the east side of the desert they 
made ample provision for their stock and crossed without 
serious inconvenience, leaving only a few cattle on the 
desert and they were brought out the next day after the 
train of emigrants had reached Ragtown, which at this 
time was a trading post. 

Two young men had been sent by Mr. Kimbal after the 
cattle and when coming up to Ragtown from their camp, 
which had been made a half mile away, they saw a young 
man with an ox and heard him trying to sell him to the 
owner of the trading post. The young man told the 
storekeeper not to buy the ox as he belonged to his boss. 
The one who had been caught in the act of trying to sell 
something that did not belong to him turned on his 
accuser and, pulling out his gun, shot him, killing him 
instantly. This tragedy caused quite an excitement in 
the camps of the emigrants and Ragtown, but the man 
was never punished for his crime. The death of this 
young man was a sad incident and one that caused great 
sorrow among the emigrants, with whom he was inti- 
mately associated. 

At this time and place, an event of unusual interest oc- 
curred to Mr. Bryan and his family. Their supply of 
bacon was exhausted. One of his fellow emigrants had 
told him he would let him have bacon, but when he went 
after it, another of the party said, "We have none to 
spare." ''All right," he said, 'T will try the trading post." 
When he went into the store he asked the proprietor if 
he had any bacon to sell. 'T have none to sell," he re- 
plied. "But," said the man, in a casual manner, "where 
are you from?" He told him he was from Kentucky, 



24 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

and looking at his would-be customer more closely, he 
said, "Yes, you are Wm. Bryan." "Yes, and you are Sol 
Perrin," was the reply. This meeting, though accidental, 
was a happy one. Mr. Perrin had married Miss Rosette 
Stowers, a cousin of Mr. Bryan's, and the year before 
they had come west with Mr. Bryan's brothers. Noth- 
ing would do but the Bryan family must come and spend 
the night with them. Mrs. Bryan said she put on her 
best clothes, dressed her children in their visiting attire 
and went from their camp to spend the night with rela- 
tives, who lived in a sure enough house, made out of tent 
canvas at the bottom and brush thrown over the top. 
That was an auspicious night, an oasis in the desert of 
their pilgrimage, and needless to say, when they started 
the next day they had bacon enough to last them the 
remainder of their journey. 

And now, after a few days' rest near Ragtown, our 
emigrant train broke camp and started into the foothills 
and across the great Sierra Nevada Mountains. The 
peaks of this range are not as high as those of the 
Rockies by several thousand feet, but the passes are more 
dangerous, and it is a historical fact that more people 
perished in the Sierras than in the Rockies during the 
emigrant days to the Pacific Coast. After several days 
of strenuous, disagreeable and dangerous traveling, the 
summit was finally reached. At a short distance south 
of Lake Tahoe, soon after they had gone into camp on 
the summit, one of those mountain storms came up and 
caused more suffering than at any time during their 
journey. Some of the men had gone with the stock a 
mile or more from camp, as there was no forage nearer 
and the stock must be provided for. First it rained, then 
sleet, then snow ; the wind blew a gale, and cold — you 
cannot imagine how cold. The men at the camp built 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 25 

great fires and the children were put to bed and the lids 
of skillets and ovens were heated and placed around them 
to keep them from freezing. Then they would fire guns 
at intervals so that the men who had gone with the stock 
might find their way back to the camp. After aw^hile the 
latter came in almost exhausted from fighting their way 
through the storm. 

And now on the 15th day of September, 1853, six 
months from the time they left their pleasant and com- 
fortable home at Carthage, Kentucky, we find the Bryan 
family at a mining place called Virginia flat in Eldorado 
county, California, with four yoke of oxen, two horses, a 
wagon, four children and three dollars in money. No 
doubt they were glad to be at their journey's end for the 
present. After coming a distance of perhaps three thou- 
sand miles, through heat and cold, under clouds and sun- 
shine, by water and land, across plains and deserts, over 
mountains and through valleys, surely they were entitled 
to a rest. They moved all their goods into a cabin built 
with three logs on a side and covered with shakes or 
boards. Their household goods consisted of their bed- 
ding, clothing and camp outfit which they had brought 
with them. And yet they were happy, for they had been 
well and hearty. Mrs. Bryan said she had walked two- 
thirds of the distance and was feeling fine when they got 
to their new home. However, the pleasure at reaching 
their destination was only to last for a brief period, for 
the great problem of making a living must be met and 
overcome. Mr. Bryan was anxious to find his brothers. 
He visited many mining camps and made inquiry without 
success. Finally one day a miner asked him where he 
was from and when he told him Kentucky, he told him 
there was a man working at a certain place they called 
Kaintuck who might know of his brothers. When he 



26 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

found this man, he proved to be one of his brothers, N. 
B. Bryan. The other brother, J. S., was quite a distance 
away working for a lady who had nursed him through a 
very severe case of measles the year before while crossing 
the plains, and was now paying the debt with his labor. 

Mining in those days was very uncertain. It was done 
by washing the gold dust from the dirt in what they 
called rockers, long Toms and sluices. Do not think 
that gold dust means tiny particles like sand; it means 
particles ranging in size from that of a pin-head to a 
good-sized nugget. Some people made fortunes, but the 
vast majority only a living. Mr. Bryan's first work was 
to go after the goods of an emigrant who had been 
stranded by losing his team. On this first trip he was 
gone ten days. After that he hauled supplies from 
Sacramento to the miners in the mountains and to the 
trading posts scattered along the trail of the emigrants. 
These long drives after their long trip across the plains 
caused his oxen to get so thin that he was compelled to 
take them to the valley between Placerville and Sacra- 
mento to forage for a living and take on flesh. 

The winter of 1853-4 was a memorable one for the 
Bryan family. They were in close quarters, but had 
plenty to eat, although of the commonest kind. The 
master of the house was gone much of the time, hav- 
ing found a light wagon by the roadside that probably 
had been abandoned by prospectors, wdiich he would hitch 
his horses to and haul many a party of miners from one 
camp to another to attend dances or other amusements, 
for which service he was well paid. Like all other win- 
ters in the past, this winter came to an end and found 
them in good health and ready to work at whatever they 
could find to do. They traded their team of horses for a 
ranch of fifty acres, in the hills, two miles from Virginia 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 27 

Flat, on which was a three-log hotise that had been used 
for a trading post. 

They lived on this ranch for five years, having built a 
comfortable house, but the land was not productive. 
Potatoes and other vegetables would not materialize. In 
the meantime, the ox teams were kept busy hauling sup- 
plies across the mountains to the mines, and shakes and 
shingles back to Sacramento. Hay was selling at eighty 
dollars per ton and rather than take the hay from the 
oxen the family used pine leaves for bedding. Mrs. 
Bryan washed and baked bread for the miners and timber 
men. The children peddled milk to the miners; in fact, 
every one worked, as well as father. Whenever they 
had money enough, they would buy a cow. 

In 1855 their youngest son, William, was born. In the 
fall of this year Mr. Bryan, with a partner, went pros- 
pecting for gold. At one place they dug a hole several 
feet deep and, not finding that for which they were seek- 
ing, they concluded to leave their picks and shovels in 
the hole to hold their claim, go home and return the next 
year. On returning the next year, they found their 
claim had been taken, and they were told that the parties 
who had worked their claim had taken out ninety thou- 
sand dollars by going a few feet deeper. 

In the year 1859, having sold their ranch, they moved 
to Clarksville, about thirty miles towards Sacramento, 
and ran a small dairy. In 1860 they bought a timber 
claim from Mr. Chandler, who had a contract to furnish 
logs to the Atlantic mills and lumber company. This 
mill was in the mountains near Sly Park, fifty miles from 
Clarksville. The family moved to the timber claim, 
except the two oldest boys, who were left at Clarksville 
to look after the dairy. About this time they took a claim 
on quite a large tract of land in Sacramento county, four- 



28 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

teen miles from Sacramento City and known as the Fol- 
some grant. Now the financial condition of the family 
began to improve. Mrs. Bryan had moved into a house 
near the mill and she and her oldest daughter cooked for 
fifteen men who worked in the timber and at the mill, and 
for this they received seven dollars per week, or one hun- 
dred and five dollars, besides many transient boarders. 
In the fall her pocketbook would measure favorably with 
that of her husband's. For three years they stayed on 
the timber claim in the summer and on their valley ranch 
in the winter. The two boys would move their dairy 
cows to the mountains and furnish butter to their mother 
for her boarders. 

In October, 1862, Damarius, their youngest daughter, 
who was now nearly ten years old, was stricken with 
diphtheria and after a brief illness the Master took her 
home. She was a beautiful child and her kind and 
amiable disposition had so impressed the family and all 
who knew her, that her absence was sorely felt. In the 
fall of 1863 they moved to the ranch to stay, having built 
a comfortable house. They were soon farming on a large 
scale and also engaged in the sheep-raising industry and, 
besides, they kept hauling freight with mule and ox teams. 
The virgin soil produced phenomenal crops, of wheat as 
much as forty bushels and barley fifty bushels to the acre. 
At this time, about the close of the Civil War, and for 
several years after, grain sold for good prices. Their 
ranch consisted of four thousand two hundred acres, 
besides they owned eight hundred acres on Deer Creek 
about eight miles from the home ranch. They dealt in 
cattle extensively, and from all their resources they rea- 
lized a handsome return in a financial way; in other 
words, they were making plenty of money. 

In the spring of 1867, Mr. Bryan, with his wife and 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 29 

daughter Maggie, returned east on a visit, going from 
San Francisco to the Isthmus of Panama by steamer, 
across the isthmus by rail and then by steamer to New 
York, returning in the fall by the same route. This trip 
cost them two thousand dollars for the three. During 
their absence their oldest son, Alonzo W., looked after 
their band of sheep which at this time numbered five 
thousand, and Elijah H. looked after the interests of the 
ranch and superintended the building of a large barn. 
At this time their land was worth about six dollars an 
acre. In the latter part of the year 1910 the ranch was 
sold to the Natoma Consolidated Co. for forty dollars an 
acre. In 1873 Mr. Bryan was elected a member of the 
Assembly on the Independent ticket, where he served one 
term with credit to himself and with satisfaction to his 
constituents. 

Mr. Bryan and his sons continued farming and in the 
sheep business until 1876, when he divided his land 
among his four children, reserving four hundred acres 
in the center of the ranch for himself. He often made 
the remark that when he most needed help was when he 
first started in life to make a home for himself and family. 
And as he had been eminently successful, with the help 
of his wife and children, in accumulating enough of this 
world's goods to make them all comfortable, he felt it a 
duty he owed his children to provide them with a home, 
as they had been so devoted to his interests and helped 
to make what he had. 

In 1880 he and his wife left the ranch and moved to Ala- 
meda. He invested ten thousand dollars in real estate 
on Pacific avenue. This money he had received on a 
ten-year endowment policy. He was twice elected a 
member of the board of trustees and was sought after 
again to serve on the board, but declined. The building 



30 THE XURE OF THE PAST 

of the Santa Clara Avenue M. E. church and parsonage 
in Alameda was made possible by this man and family. 
They donated the lot on which they were built and gave 
of their labor more than any other family, and when com- 
pleted there was no debt to be provided for. Several per- 
sons have since told me that if it had not been for Grandpa 
and Grandma Bryan the church and parsonage would 
never have been built. And today you can see a picture 
of Mr. Bryan in the lecture room, an indication that he 
was highly esteemed by the members, and showing that 
he was indeed the father of the church. 

In October, 1895, they celebrated their golden wed- 
ding anniversary, surrounded by their children and 
grandchildren, named respectively as follows : Maggie 
C. Morris and children. May and Will; Alonzo W. Bryan, 
wife and children, Lessie, Bert and Archie; Elijah H. 
Bryan, wife and daughter Vivian; Wm. F. Bryan, wife 
and children, Macie, Hazen, Ralph, Arthur and Edna. 
This was a memorable occasion and one never to be for- 
gotten. As the parents glanced at the joyful and loving 
faces around them, their eyes grew dim with happy tears 
and their memories wandered back to the time, a half 
century ago, when they first plighted their troth and took 
up life's burden together. A bountiful dinner was served 
to all present and in the evening many friends called to 
extend hearty congratulations. Among the many pres- 
ents received was a gold watch to the mother and a gold- 
headed umbrella to the father from the children, and a 
gold berry spoon from the grandchildren. A touching 
feature of the gathering was a second ceremony per- 
formed by the Rev. J. J. Martin, pastor of the Santa 
Clara Avenue M. E. church, when once again the happy 
couple plighted their troth. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bryan made four trips to the east, the 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 31 

last one in 1897, at which time they visited Washing- 
ton City and witnessed the inauguration of President 
McKinley. They would go in the spring and return in 
the fall and, whenever possible, go by different routes, 
which was a source of great enjoyment, for they loved 
to travel, and seeing things is better than hearing about 
them, although it is a great privilege and pleasure to hear 
and read of things as they are to one wdio does not have 
the opportunity of seeing them. From 1897 this aged 
couple lived the quiet, simple life for twelve years as 
becomes those who have lived a long, useful and active 
life. This was the Autumn and nearing the Winter of 
life spoken of elsewhere. 

I have often thought the most beautiful and perfect life 
was the one in which a man and woman joined by the 
holy bonds of wedlock could travel hand in hand up the 
eastern pathway of life until the summit is reached and 
then down the western slope, hand in hand, to the brink 
of the river where the loved ones on the other side are 
waiting to welcome them home. A beautiful life, no dis- 
cord, no fault-finding, no severe criticism, but love and 
harmony and encouragement and good cheer. That seems 
to me to be the ideal life. How many live it? 

Wm. E. Bryan was a man of sterling integrity. He 
was one of those who lived not for himself alone, but to 
make the world about him better and happier. Those 
who came in contact with him in a business or social 
way felt the force of his personality and respected him 
for his positive convictions on public questions. He 
was not afraid to express his opinion on any subject 
vital to the betterment of his country or his fellow men ; 
an ideal husband, father and citizen. On July 22, 1909, 
he passed to his reward at the age of eighty-seven years 
and nine months. Truly, a good life well Hved had come 



32 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

to a close. His life work was ended. An example had 
been left to those who had known him best. His body 
was laid away in the beautiful Mountain View cemetery 
on the western hillside east of the city of Oakland, where 
the grass is touched by the last rays of the setting sun 
just before he sinks to rest in the great bosom of the 
mighty ocean and, like man, to rise bright and beautiful 
in the morning. 

And now in the conclusion of this history of pioneer 
life in the West, and down to the present time, June, 
1911, may I not ask you citizens of California this ques- 
tion : Do you not owe these men and women who 
crossed the plains sixty years or more ago a debt of 
gratitude? Aye, more, you owe them a benign and rev- 
erent benediction in their old age because they have made 
it possible for you to live in a State in some ways the 
best in the Union ; therefore, I charge you not to forget 
the pioneer settlers. I love to listen to Mrs. Bryan as 
she tells of her long life of joy and sorrow, of adversity 
and prosperity, and best of all is to hear her say that 
through all these experiences she has never lost faith in 
God. Sometimes the clouds of poverty and privation 
would almost shut out the sun of Righteousness, then 
the sweet words of comfort would come to her mind, 
*'A11 things work together for good to them that love the 
Lord." The clouds would roll away and peace and hap- 
piness would fill her soul. And now in her eighty- 
seventh year, at her pleasant home in Alameda, sur- 
rounded by her children and grandchildren, who are a 
source of great pleasure and comfort to her, we find her 
waiting for the Master to say, **Well done, good and 
faithful servant, come up higher." Waiting, but not idle, 
remarkably strong in body and mind, she is busy every 
day visiting the sick, comforting and aiding the needy 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 33 

and living the Christ life. She keeps her mind and body 
employed, and her great desire is that her loved ones 
here on earth may so live that they may meet her at the 
river that flov^s by the throne of God. 



<&m. 




34 THE LURE OF THE PAST 



A GOOD BOOK 

A good book, whether a novel or not, is one that leaves 
you farther on than when you took it up. If when you 
have read it, it leaves you just where you were before 
reading it, with no finer outlook, no clearer vision, no 
stimulated desires for that which is better and higher, 
then it is in no sense a good book. If when you have 
read this book, you do not feel that you have advanced 
even one step toward a stronger and better life — it is in 
no sense a good book. In every book there ought to be 
a thought in it that will help the reader, for as the writer 
has given his thoughts to the world, it ought to be for 
some definite purpose. If for money only, the writer has 
failed; if for love of humanity each succeeding book is 
better, this is true as you know of some modern writers. 

We will find as we look back on the journey of life up 
to the present time, the moments that stand out promi- 
nently before us and the moments when we have really 
enjoyed life are the moments when we have done things 
in a spirit of love and have done things that we feel have 
been a benefit to a fellow being. But, oh, how we try to 
forget the mean things we have done ! They, too, stand 
out prominently before us at times, but they have been 
blotted out to a certain extent and, although the scars 
are there and will always remain, yet the better life has 
healed them over. Surely we should try to make the 
world better, and if we only persuade one soul to lead a 
better life we leave the world better than we found it. 

Last night I read in a book written by a noted English 
author these words: "Fools! They were living in the 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 35 

Hell they feared. Their punishment was now. They 
had long been damned. While they lived God. the 
Avenger, would punish them inexorably. When they 
died, God, the merciful Savior, would take them and 
make them clean. Death, the death they feared and fled 
from, would be their salvation, as it is every man's." Do 
you believe, no matter how wicked a man has been in 
this life, that his punishment is all in this world? Grant- 
ing it is so, would it not be better and safer and wiser to 
live the good life as we are passing? All men who have 
tried both kinds agree that the good life is the happier 
one in this world, and the credits on the Lamb's Book of 
Life might help to insure a permanent residence in "that 
city not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens." The 
lives of men and women are read just as surely as books. 
It is said, and no doubt truthfully, that every man is 
exactly what he looks. The face always reveals or be- 
trays. If your life has not been made better and stronger 
by reading and studying the life of an intimate friend, 
then his life, like a book, is in no sense a good one, for 
the aim of life should be to lend a helping hand to those 
who are less fortunate. To set a good example before 
children and the world, to lighten the burdens of those 
who need sympathy, comfort and aid, a kind word, a 
pleasant answer to a question, a smile even, goes a long 
way toward reading a man's life. Men are won by what 
they approve. They are led to imitate what they admire. 
Actions that are worthy of praise never stand alone. 
They are transmitted from one to another, creating im- 
pressions according to their worth. As you grow ready 
for it, somewhere or sometime, you will find what you 
need — in a book, or a friend, or it may be in your own 
thoughts. If in a book, it will not be one of froth, but 
of good thought, where you can see the pure gold in the 



36 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

rubbish and profit will ne'er escape, for you will hide it 
in your breast. If in a friend, it will be one in whom you 
can trust, one who has had long years of experience, and 
by that experience has learned the better part, the good 
life, the only one worth living. If in your own thoughts, 
it will be from reading good books and being in touch 
with good people, but on the contrary you will find noth- 
ing satisfactory or elevating in bad books, bad people or 
bad thoughts. With these preliminary thoughts to show 
the bent of the writer's mind and with the hope that some- 
where in this book you will find a gem of truth that will 
give joy and pleasure in the reading and will cause you 
to pause, if only for a little while and ask yourself the 
question, "Am I living the best life I know how?" 

After you have lived three score and ten years you will 
see the many mistakes you have made and wonder why 
you made them. With the experience of our ancestors 
handed down from one generation to another, and with 
the marvelous progress made along educational lines, it 
seems strange we are not wiser in living. And after all, 
people now are the same as they were seventy years ago. 
The difference between then and now is in what people 
have done in a material way for the benefit of mankind. 
It is said, then there were giants in oratory, such as 
Webster, Clay, Calhoun and others, in comparison with 
whom ours are mediocre. Then the primeval forests were 
being laid low by the woodman's ax, the smoke was curl- 
ing from the chimney of the pioneer's cabin, now where 
the mighty oak and kindred trees stood and defied the 
storms of the centuries past the golden grain waves and 
nods like an ocean billow. The log cabin home and the 
fort, like corral for the comfort and protection of the 
domestic animals, have been replaced by the comfortable 
modern home and the pretentious barn. Then the horse 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 37 

stood in front of the cabin saddled and bridled and paw- 
ing the ground impatiently and shaking his bit as if eager 
for the fifty-mile journey to carry back the necessary sup- 
plies for the family; now the son or grandson of that 
same pioneer sits on his veranda reading the morning- 
paper just delivered by the rural mail carrier, and his 
auto stands in the flower-bordered drive, ready to con- 
vey him to the county town a few miles away. Then 
the swamp covered with water filled the air with poison- 
ous malaria ; now the pure sweet air wafted through space 
like a summer zephyr is like incense made from the honey 
in flowers or from the perfume of the rose or heliotrope. 
Then the prairie sod had not been broken in the north- 
west territories ; the wolf, coyote, buffalo and other wild 
animals held high carnival on the lonesome plains ; now^ 
on these plains the horse, the cattle and sheep graze un- 
disturbed in the wide pastures. Then the red men were 
the terror of civilization, now peace reigns, the bow and 
arrow, the tomahawk, the painted warrior are but a faint 
memory and the few who are left of the aborigines are 
law-abiding citizens. Then the rivers were impassable 
in many places where now great bridges made of steel 
and wood and iron connect opposite sides, and busy traffic 
goes on day after day. Then the cities and towns were 
far apart, now other towns and cities have been made as 
if by magic, and by steam and trolley distance has been 
eliminated and the city or town in the next county or 
state is easy of access and seems like a neighbor. Then 
the highways were in a condition bordering on useless- 
ness in winter or early spring, now the gravel and macad- 
amized roads permeate every avenue of travel and bad 
roads are the exception. Then the distance from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean seemed insurmountable, 
now in a few days with comfort and ease the long dis- 



38 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

lance is overcome and it is only a pleasure trip from New 
York City to the Golden West Coast. Then the farmer 
worked hard early and late to make a living for himself 
and family, now the farmer lets the machinery do the 
work while he controls the power that makes farming a 
pastime and a pleasure. Then the children walked two 
and three miles to the log school house for a term of 
three months' school each year, and if a boy in the class 
missed spelling more than one word of the lesson, the 
teacher would make him stand on one foot in the corner 
of the room for half an hour to remind him of his lack of 
appreciation of the opportunity and privilege of learning 
to spell ; now the children from the outskirts of the town- 
ship are transported from their homes in the morning to 
the modern combined grade and high school building, 
which is near the center of the township, and in the after- 
noon they are taken home in comfortable wagons made 
for that purpose, and if the boy fails (not in spelling, as 
that branch is obsolete) in English or Latin or algebra, 
he is sent home. 

How we people, who have lived a half century or more, 
wish we were young again. This is certainly a glad era 
in which to live, and yet we realize that "There is no 
snow falls lighter than the snow of age. and none is 
heavier, for it never melts. The old man may sit and sing, 
I would I were a boy again, but he grows older as he 
sings." Men who are living today, seventy-five years old, 
remember these conditions existed, as we have stated 
them, sixty-six years ago. Our country has made phe- 
nomenal progress in that time, and we Avonder what the 
next half or whole century will bring to the children of 
men in the way of improvements over the present time. 

It may be that airships will be as common as street- 
cars and as useful ; and by telepathy friends can converse 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 39 

with each other across the continent the same as by tele- 
phone now; and by strict enforcement of the pure food 
law, the complete mastery of hygiene, the observance of 
the laws of the national board of health in every detail, 
the banishment of the custom of osculation, the entire 
segregation of children and adults, and with the anti- 
septic transmitter on the telephone, and the individual 
drinking cup, when these have been carried out to the 
letter, future generations may be immune from disease 
of any kind, except in cases of heredity and even then the 
health-given environment of the one thus afflicted would 
be so perfect that disease would soon be eliminated. 
Then man would be in his prime at eighty and no doubt 
many would live to be two hundred years old. No won- 
der our ancestors passed away. Imagine one's grand- 
father, when he was a boy going to the timberland to cut 
wood, make rails or shakes, his pockets filled with green 
apples the size of an English walnut and a little salt tied 
in a rag snugly stowed away with the apples to give them 
a relish, imagine him sitting on a log munching apples 
dipped in salt, and after partaking of this delectable 
luncheon, we can see him at the brook, down on his knees, 
his hands resting on pieces of wood at the edge of the 
water to keep his hands and arms from sinking down in 
the mud and water to his elbows, and now he drinks and 
drinks; did anything ever taste so good? The nectar of 
the gods was no more delicious than the water from the 
purling brook, and yet with every swallow of water a 
million microbes entered the system. Returning home 
just as the sun is sinking below the western horizon, he 
hears the glad summons from the tired but patient mother, 
''supper is ready." And such a supper! Today it would 
be dinner. The fabled ambrosia of the gods was not 
better. The menu was elaborate and extensive. It con- 



40 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

sisted of bread made from cornmeal baked in an oven, 
coals of fire under and coals of fire on the lid of the oven, 
the dough of which had been left all night and a part of 
the day that the myriad of little microbes would make it 
rise, but as the life was baked out of them there was no 
danger in eating that pone of bread and fat bacon, hominy, 
vegetables, milk, butter and jelly. Then direct to bed — 
no wonder they died ! 

The editors of newspapers fifty years hence will be 
welcome to copy from The Lure of the Past anything 
they find of interest to the reading public. They may 
want to tell their readers of conditions in this country in 
1911 as we tell of conditions as they were in 1861. 

Fifty years ago this spring the pent-up fury of a great 
nation had burst like a Vesuvius. For ten years or more 
Congress had tried in vain to settle the vexed question 
of slavery, but instead the situation became more acute. 
The tense lines binding the Union together could not 
possibly hold much longer. The compromise of 1850, in 
which the fugitive slave law was incorporated, was the 
beginning of the end. Then followed the wonderful 
novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," published in 1852, and with- 
out doubt that book was one of the vital forces affecting 
the history of that time, and if it was written to stimulate 
the mind of the fanatic to greater zeal as an advocate of 
anti-slavery, it served its purpose well and, although it 
was fiction pure and simple, everybody read it and many 
believed it was as true as gospel. Later, the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
the Dred Scott decision, the Kansas war, John Brown's 
exploit at Harper's Ferry, all of these things helped to 
fan into fiame the smoldering embers of disunion, which 
like some loathsome disease had filled the minds of the 
anti and pro-slavery adherents both North and South. 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 41 

We people who lived at that time know that these are 
facts, and we also know that had the majority of the 
people had their desires gratified a half million lives of 
the flow^er of our nation would have been spared and 
enough money saved to have bought and colonized every 
slave in the South. So it was up to the men in charge 
of afifairs at that time, and the fanatics both North and 
South, and as they have all passed away — these great 
actors in the drama — we will let them rest in peace and 
bless their memories for bringing about a w^ar that settled 
the question of slavery forever, that bound our states in 
a Union stronger than ever they were before, and today 
we are the freest, the happiest and the best nation on this 
old mother earth. 

At San Francisco, in 1915, four years hence, our great 
country will celebrate the completion of the Panama 
Canal. When completed it will be the biggest engineer- 
ing project in the world and will have cost half a 
billion dollars. At the special session in 1911 the House 
of Representatives voted an appropriation of three million 
dollars to begin work of fortifying the Canal, which when 
fortified will be a bulwark of strength. It will also injure 
peace to strengthen our coast defense. Fifty years hence, 
some of the children and grandchildren of people living 
today will be talking of celebrating the victory over the 
Lost Cause, and the elevation of a human race from bond- 
age to freedom. But we hope the generations living at 
that time will have something to celebrate that will give 
patriotic joy to the whole nation, rather than a part. It 
seems like a good thing to be an editor of a metropolitan 
newspaper. We have in mind two editors, one in a city 
on the Pacific Coast, one in a city in the Middle West. 
These men are great Avriters. Their editorials on any 
subject are worth reading, but the editor of the Middle 



42 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

West paper dare not write things about people that the 
editor of the coast paper writes. We wonder why? No 
doubt the location is the reason. One published an article 
making charges of fraud in the Panama Canal deal and a 
libel suit was the result. The other said in an editorial 
that the veterans of the Civil War had been well taken 
care of, and it was time to call a halt. If the other fellow 
had written such an article, no doubt the batteries of 
scathing rebuke of the G. A. R. encampments would have 
been turned loose on the editor and unconditional surren- 
der would have been the result, for the veterans of the 
Middle West are a mighty factor in politics, as well as 
])ensions. What they want and must have to be satisfied 
is one dollar per day pension the balance of their natural 
lives. Why not give them what they want to satisfy 
them in their old age and let their last days be their 
happiest? 

While it is a good thing to be an editor, it is better to 
be an author, a writer of books, the kind that to read 
them rests the body and mind, the kind that makes you 
forget yourself and your little world and sometimes brings 
tears to your eyes. A very safe way to gauge the quality 
of a book is by the efifect it has on the reader. If there is 
no tender chord of our being touched, no tear dims the 
eye, and no better impulse is in our nature, then either the 
book or the reader is to blame. It might be a stony heart 
like Shylock's that could not be softened by a Portia's 
mercy speech, or it might be the fault of the writer. Of 
course the newspapers and magazines are a part of our 
being; they are indispensable, but they cannot take the 
place of books. There are so many kinds of books and 
yet they could be grouped into three classes, at least that 
is sufficient for our purpose. The inspired Book, remem- 
ber, is not classed with the three, for it is far superior 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 43 

to any that has been written since John, the beloved 
disciple, wrote these words, the last probably of the New 
Testament, "And there are also many other things which 
Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, 
I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the 
books that should be written." 

Have you read Hugo's ''Les Miserables," said to be the 
masterpiece of this famous author? Of course you have, 
every reader of fiction has. If any of your literary friends 
should ask you, have you read Dumas, Thackeray, Scott, 
Dickens and the whole list, you would not like to say no ; 
perhaps some read them on that account, while others do 
so because they enjoy reading them. Let us take "Les 
Miserables" for a specimen copy of that class of books 
— while reading it, did it rest your mind and body? 
Did the twelve or fifteen-page description of an old 
French building appeal to your fancy? Did you throw 
the book down and say, how tiresome, and in a few hours 
pick it up and commence reading again? And how about 
Jean Valjean? Did you ever know or hear of a man 
whose conscience hurt him so long as did his for taking 
a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children? Can 
you imagine a man living today, who has become a mil- 
lionaire in twenty or thirty years, being troubled about 
such a little thing as that *'wee small voice" called con- 
science? We wonder if Fels, Carnegie and Rockefeller 
have had a vision? If conscience has been the cause, we 
hope it will affect others, and the result be satisfactory to 
those who give as well as those who receive. What im- 
presses one most in this masterpiece of this great author 
is his description of the battle of Waterloo, a wonderfully 
vivid and truthful portrayal of that decisive and hard- 
fought battle. But his vindictive arraignment of Napo- 
leon as a man is as strong language as could be used in 



44 THE IvURK OF THE PAST 

condemnation of the little Corsican. He said, "Was it 
possible that Napoleon should win this battle? Wt an- 
swer, no. Why? because of W^ellington? because of 
Bluecher? No, because of God. For Bonaparte to be 
conqueror at Waterloo was not in the law of the nine- 
teenth century. Another series of facts were preparing in 
which Napoleon had no place. The ill-Avill of events had 
long been announced. It was time that this vast man 
should fall. The excessive weight of this man in human 
destiny disturbed the equilibrium. This individual 
counted of himself alone more than the universe besides. 
These plethoras of all human vitality concentrated in a 
single head, the world mounting to the brain of one man, 
would be fatal to civilization if they should endure. The 
moment had come for incorruptible supreme equity to 
look to it. Probably the principles and elements upon 
which regular gravitations in the moral order as well as 
in the material depend, began to murmur; reeking blood, 
overcrowded cemeteries, weeping mothers, these are for- 
midable pleaders. When the earth is suffering from a 
surcharge there are mysterious moanings from the deep 
which the heavens hear; Napoleon had been impeached 
before the Infinite and his fall was decreed. He vexed 
God. Waterloo was not a battle ; it is the change of front 
of the universe." 

We wonder if these declarations of Hugo in such high- 
sounding language are applicable to any person since the 
days of Napoleon. W^e hope not, and yet in our own 
country there are a few men who seem Napoleonic in 
their ambitions. When we read books like "Ben Hur," 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," "The Prince of the House of 
David," we never forget them, and perhaps they are the 
kind we ought to read ; the trouble is, there is not enough 
of them. If we go to the public library in any city, shut 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 45 

our eyes and take the first book we touch, we would 
probably have to make several trips before we got one 
we cared to read. People are alwa3^s looking for a favor- 
ite author, hoping the next book will be even better than 
the last one read. We read books like "Black Rock," 
'The Right of Way," 'The Main Chance," and a hun- 
dred others today, and forget them tomorrow; they seem 
to be the kind that sell and the kind that most people like 
to read. Whether it is the best reading for one is a ques- 
tion for the one most interested to answer. One person 
would say, let the professors delve into the classics and 
get all they can out of them and give their pupils the 
benefit of their researches. Life is too short for the aver- 
age American citizen to take so much of his precious time 
to read a book and more of his time to digest it, to 
assimilate it, to classify it in his mind. Another would 
say, do not read trash, fiction, invention feigned or false 
story, do not waste your time reading it, read something- 
solid, ancient and modern history, political economy, 
science, in fact read anything before fiction. Will we 
ever realize that much of the solid reading is fiction, pure 
and simple; even some of our modern histories are over- 
drawn and inaccurate, as we all know; perhaps prejudice 
has more to do with the inaccuracies than imagination 
If it is good to be an editor and better to be an author, 
it is surely the best to be a preacher. This is a profession 
in which we can all take a part, not in the pulpit, not to 
perform a marriage ceremony, not to be ordained and 
invested with ministerial functions, but we can preach by 
precept and example. Do we have to proclaim from the 
housetop that we are followers of the lowly Nazarene? 
Do we have to publish to the world our every act of 
charity, of love, of good-will to be philanthropists? Do 
we justify ourselves with the thought that we have no 



46 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

neighbor to whom we can show that we are good Samari- 
tans? As these thoughts come to our minds, do we re- 
member that we are a power on earth for good, individual- 
ly with our neighbor and collectively with the world? The 
Christian preachers today have a greater influence for 
good than all other agencies combined. Suppose all the 
laymen of all the churches would put forth all their moral 
and spiritual strength for the good of humanity, with their 
invincible leaders, the preachers to advise and admonish, 
the result no doubt would be of wonderful magnitude. 
Xot only would His kingdom be built up and strength- 
ened, but his Satanic majesty would be so handicapped by 
having his w^eapons taken away that the victory gained 
would be lasting. 

The adversary of good depends on Sabbath desecration 
for his first lesson in leading men and women out of the 
path of rectitude, and if he can induce his followers to 
work on the Sabbath day under any pretense, calling it 
business, he has proven himself a good teacher, for he is 
aware of the fact that as long as they obey his instruc- 
tion he can use them for his unrighteous purpose, which 
is to lead them along the broad way that ends in eternal 
night and without hope. ''Remember the Sabbath day 
and keep it holy." Another formidable weapon used by 
this adversary of good is the saloon. After Sabbath dese- 
cration, the lessons are easy ; first is drinking at a fash- 
ionable resort, next gambling, then blasphemy and mur- 
der, causing crushed hearts and neglected children, and 
finally the blear-eyed sot fills a drunkard's grave. What 
a deplorable picture of the life of a man made in God's 
own image, and yet it is true just because a man lacks the 
will-power to let the accursed stufif alone. It wrecked 
my home when I was a boy and sent my father to a pre- 
mature grave, and it will wTeck your home and cause 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 47 

sorrow and shame, where joy and happiness ought to 
reign supreme. If these were the last words I should 
write, I must say that no words could express my loathing 
and disgust of the nefarious traffic sanctioned by the 
government and licensed by the state. No wonder a cer- 
tain class of men are fighting woman suffrage, but the 
time will come, and not many years hence, when the 
curse of all nations will be blotted out of existence in 
this fair country of ours, as was slavery a half century 
ago, not by war, but by the ballots of Christian men 
assisted by the votes of millions of American women, the 
fairest under the sun. This will be brought about by the 
preachers, and their influence over men will always be for 
the good of humanity. Then w^e can look into the future 
with prophetic eyes and see the dawning of the millen- 
nium. How much good we could do if we would do our 
whole duty as we see and know it when the opportunity 
comes. We all like the preachers ; they are doing a world 
of good and we are not caring so much about denomina- 
tions any more. While it is all right to follow the teachings 
of Wesley, Luther, Campbell and Calvin and even Mrs. 
Eddy, and the whole list of the founders of the different 
denominations, we find the pastors all piloting their flocks 
to the same Shepherd, and when life's battles are over, 
and the voyage down the river of life is ended, and w^e 
launch out into the great ocean of eternity, the im- 
portant thing for us is, have we lived the Christ life, the 
best we know how? There are millions of other men 
and women who live to make the world better. Teachers, 
doctors, lawyers, artists, mechanics, and vast armies of 
skilled and common laborers, each one of these people 
have had an experience, for weal or woe, and no two 
alike — some commonplace, others interesting. 

Why this great unrest among the laboring classes of 



48 THE IvURE OF THE PAST 

our country today; is it the people, or is it the conditions 
relating to morals or duty as we find them today? You 
go into a barber shop and while one of the employes 
attends to your wants and his duties, the proverbial con- 
versation takes place. How is everything in this city? 
Oh, it's the bummest place I ever saw; do you know, I 
only get fourteen dollars a week, and if ever I can save 
money enough to take my wife and three children back 
where I came from, I will go in a hurry and be glad to 
get away from this place — unrest. In another city, you 
talk with a fruit and vegetable huckster. You say to 
him, yours is a very good business, you make a good liv- 
ing for yourself and family, do you not? "It's rotten," is 
his reply, "everything is going wrong." 

"There are only two classes of people, the rich and the 
poor. The government runs the machine, the material is 
put in the hopper all of the same quality, but when they 
come out, on the one side are the rich, on the other the 
poor," but listen : "I will tell you something. In a few 
years the socialists will be in power, then equality in all 
things" — unrest. In another city, you talk to a mechanic ; 
you say, my friend, you are in a union that insures you 
steady work at good wages, it must be a good thing to 
belong to a union. "Perhaps you are right, but listen, if 
I did not belong to the union, I could not get any work 
to do, so you see I was forced to join the union in order 
to get work, and now I am not busy all the time, but I 
tell you that years ago, when wages were lower, I had 
more money at the end of the month than I have now. 
Why? Because rent was less, foodstuffs of all kinds 
were cheaper, clothing was cheaper and, above all, I was 
independent" — unrest. 

In another city you go into a factory where hundreds 
of men are toiling day after day. They do not look happy, 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 49 

neither are they contented. And why? They will tell 
you, "We are giving the best part of our lives to this 
concern, the owners of which have become immensely 
rich, while we who have made their fortunes are just 
living — no richer, no poorer than we were ten years ago." 
Unrest. What is the solution to this momentous prob- 
lem? We answer: The gospel of Jesus Christ and co- 
operation. When the Spirit enters the human temple of 
the capitalist there will be no room for avarice, and when 
the Socialist opens the door of his heart and lets the Spirit 
in, hatred will be dethroned and faith, hope and love will 
reign. And, by the way, you will find if you live to be 
three score years and ten, about all there is in life is faith 
in God, hope of immortality, and love for your fellow man. 
This is beautifully portrayed in a few verses from the 
German of Schiller. Study the thought and you will be 
convinced of their truthful import : 

There are three lessons I would write ; 
Three words as with a burning pen. 
In tracings of eternal light 
Upon the hearts of men. 

Have hope. Though clouds environ now. 
And gladness hides her face in scorn. 
Put thou the shadow from thy brow ; 
No night but hath its morn. 

Have faith. Where'er thy bark is driven, 
The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth. 
Know this — God rules the hosts of heaven. 
The inhabitants of earth. 



50 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

Have love. Not love alone for one, ■ 

But men, as men, thy brothers call, 
And scatter, like the circling sun. 
Thy charities on all. 

Thus grave these lessons on thy soul — 
Hope, faith and love — and thou shalt find 
Strength when life's surges rudest roll. 
Light when thou else wert blind. 

And so we find it, everywhere, not everybody in that 
condition of unrest, but a vast majority of our fellow- 
citizens are the happiest people on earth ; they are not 
rich, neither are they poor, they have pleasant homes, 
they have a business or profession, trade or occupation 
by which they can make an honest and independent living. 
They have good neighbors and kind friends. They have 
the satisfaction of knowing their lives have fallen to them 
in pleasant places, yea, that they have a goodly heritage 
and they should praise God from whom all blessings flow. 

And now, we have moralized, eulogized and theorized 
all for a purpose to get you to stop and think. We have 
only written what you know, but you are so busy solving 
life's problems and adjusting them to your way of seeing 
things, that even sympathy is obscured, and you turn a 
deaf ear to the pleading soul who has been less fortunate 
than you in fighting life's battles. How many tragic 
stories could be written of persons, could we lift the veil 
that hides like a curtain from our gaze their joys and 
sorrows, their good and bad impulses, their every act 
through every phase of life and finally to write of them 
as those who with beaming expression of face, with stately 
poise, with lofty mien and with eyes of deepest solicitude, 
all indicating the struggle is over, the victory won and 
henceforth nothing bad shall mar the beauty of life. 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 51 

The problems of life are an every-day fact; what per- 
plexes you and gives you anxious thought for your present 
welfare and future happiness is readily solved by your 
friend and neighbor, not by environment, not by heritage, 
nor financial success, nor greater intelligence, but by 
righteousness. If it exalts a nation, why not a human 
being? Solomon said, "Righteousness exalteth a nation; 
but sin is a reproach to any people." Rev. Sam Small 
said he thought Solomon knew better what a nation 
needed than any other man that has ever lived, except 
Theodore Roosevelt. We ought to be the greatest nation 
on the earth, and are in some ways. If we were immune 
from every other nation, we could live for a thousand 
years on our own resources, every man could make a liv- 
ing for himself and family unless he was too lazy to work, 
or kept out of the reward of his labor by unjust laws, or 
physically disabled. Being free, it is a pleasure to think 
about the freedom wx have, if we are so fortunate as to 
have the money to pay for it. There are a few things left 
that are not in the trusts. The air we breathe is free, 
the sky, the clouds, the song of the birds, the sunshine and 
shadow, and we ought to be thankful there are so many 
things that money cannot buy. 

Almost everything that is sold is in a trust, or con- 
trolled on a similar basis. For instance, take brooms, a 
useful and very necessary commodity; the factories send 
their agents to the farmers in Illinois who raise broom- 
corn, and buy their crops long before they are matured. 
When the crop is delivered in the fall, and there is no 
more to buy, the price goes up double what they paid, 
and a twenty-five-cent broom will sell for fift}- cents. 
That's a legitimate business, and what are you going to 
do about it? You will do just what you do when you 



52 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

want a little bacon for your breakfast, pay the thirty-five 
cents a pound, or do without. 

If we are not satisfied with these conditions, we will 
have to make the best of them, and be as happy as we 
can, and adjust ourselves to the new conditions as they 
arise, for none of us would go back even a half century 
and face the difficulties and lack of modern conveniences, 
so let us be hopeful and contented. And after all, our 
greatest happiness does not come from our desires being 
satisfied, but rather the denial of them for the sake of 
some high purpose in life. Did you ever know a young 
man v/ho wanted to be a lawyer, was educated for that 
profession and after he was converted, gave his life work 
to the ministry, giving up his chosen profession ; and do 
you suppose he was unhappy because his desires had been 
thwarted and denied? No, his supreme joy must have 
been in his purpose to do a great and noble work for his 
Master. There are many examples besides Saul of Tar- 
sus of this kind. Have you known sons or daughters to 
forego the pleasure and happiness of a prospective home 
of their own to take care of a widowed mother or orphan 
brothers and sisters? If so, their happiness was in the 
denial of pleasure for a high purpose in life called duty.' 

As the writer works day after day, new^ thoughts come 
into the mind, they lead on and on, the imagination can 
travel across the continent while the telegraph operator 
touches the key of his instrument, and yet there is a 
thought that lingers with a man day after day as he 
works. It controls his life, sometimes it brings success, 
often failure as the world judges a man's life. General 
Grant had the thought at Petersburg, and it brought suc- 
cess; General Lee's was the same and it brought failure. 
You will find in every book, in every sermon, in every 
business, in every walk of life that success is always the 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 53 

goal of this thought, and happiness — temporal or eter- 
nal — the hoped-for reward. There may be happiness in 
failure to do the great things we desire, but even the cup 
of cold water to the one who has fallen by the wayside 
brings its reward. There is such a thought in this book, 
not alone for a dim future beyond the grave but to enjoy 
life in all its beauty day by day, to drink deeply at the 
fountain of perpetual joy and happiness. It is here for 
us in abundance, why not appropriate it and use it as 
our own, but there will be no genuine and lasting happi- 
ness when you violate the laws of God and man with 
impunity. 

Besides the central thought, there is another that lin- 
gers in our mind, it is ever present as we write. Like 
Banquo's ghost, it will not down ; not stupendous in its 
significance like the first, for surely if there is anything 
divine in man, it is the thought that impels him to do 
all he can to make the world better and happier. But 
this auxiliary or subsidiary thought, call it what you 
please, has helped us to write this book different from 
any you have ever read. In writing a preface and plac- 
ing it here instead of in the front is an innovation. No 
excuse is offered for a book like this, the object in writing- 
is for pity, love and money — pity for humanity as we 
see it reckless and extravagant in its desires for pleasures 
of things worldly that will not satisfy the soul ; love for 
all things that make the world better — the church, the 
home, the school, the results of their teaching and in- 
fluence; money for the publisher and the poor. The only 
authority enunciated in this book is derived from char- 
acter, age and experience — character, that peculiar qual- 
ity of a person that makes reputation and standing; age, 
that means to us almost the alloted three score and ten 
years. What a wonderful thought age is ; there is 



54 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

infancy, youth, manhood and the declining years of life, 
four stages to pass through while here, just a little visit 
on earth, then he goes back home to stay. But the ex- 
perience is worth while, transcendent it may be, and 
why not? If the every day experience of life was all, 
why that soul-craving for the life beyond? What a vast 
difference in the lives of people as we see and know 
them. Some there are we love to contemplate, charac- 
ters beautiful and sublime, their presence is one of peace 
and joy, their memories like the fragrance of the attar of 
roses, a life gliding smoothly along, not a ripple of dis- 
content, no cataract of anger, no storm tossed billows 
of doubt and distress ruffling their pleasant faces. Others, 
ever scowling and distrustful, dark and dismal thoughts 
are expressed on their base and repulsive countenances, 
they are discontented and unhappy, fault-finding and dis- 
agreeable. We pity the people who are not happy in this 
world, no matter what the environment. 

Yes, you will find this book different from any you 
have read, and if you do not agree with us in what is in 
the book, of course you have the right to your opinion. 
We could have written a story, and if we are ever con- 
vinced that our illustrious namesake ever told a story in 
all his life, even after the episode of the cherry tree and 
little hatchet, then conscientious scruples will ]je cast 
aside and we will hesitate no longer, but try our hand 
at story writing. 

We have given you the history of the simple life, lived 
l)y a man worthy of emulation in some ways, not perfect, 
as perfection is not possible, but it was a life far above 
the average. Then we have tried to show the difference 
between then and now, in many things that relate to our 
country and ourselves and now we are going to give our 
observations and impressions of things as they are, or 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 55 

as we saw them in the Middle West to the Pacific Coast. 
Our experience for a life of sixty-seven years would be 
worth while, but not necessary at this time. 

Away back in 1872 is w^hen life began for us. A man 
never lives until he marries the woman he loves and set- 
tles down to make an honest living for the two or more, if 
they are blessed in that way. Of course a man can stay 
stuck away in a hotel or rooming house, he can imagine 
he is having a nice time and enjoying life, but he don't 
know anything about the happy, contented life until he 
has a home of his own. On the bank of the far-famed 
and historic Brandywine, not the one of revolutionary 
historic memories, but the one the Hoosier poet has in 
such a graphic manner described in verse as an ideal 
stream in which to find an ''Ole Swimmin' Hole," water as 
clear as crystal and cool as the spray from the snow-fed 
falls of the Yosemite, truly a picturesque and romantic 
stream fed by a thousand springs that never fail or grow 
weary. Today our mind goes back to pleasant scenes. 
back nearly forty years, when life was worth while, and 
as we stand near this memorable stream in fancy, what a 
beautiful picture is spread out before us. As far as the eye 
can see on every hand are well-kept farms, comfortable 
homes, hospitable neighbors, good roads, two churches a 
mile away, the district school house at the cross roads, a 
sure monitor of intellectual attainment, the mill and 
smith, the clouds and sunshine, the heat and the cold, the 
rain and snow, the seedtime and harvest, the work and 
rest, the comfortable home and all the word home implies, 
not merely a place to eat and sleep, but a place made 
sacred and happy by its very name, a synonym for para- 
dise on earth. Much might be written of the quiet, happy, 
restful country home in contra-distinction to the city 
home, but onlv those who have lived in both know the 



56 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

advantages of the former. We also see, farther than the 
natural vision of the eye, all over the county beautiful 
homes and happy and contented farmers and, as the years 
go by, they keep pace w^ith the many improvements and 
inventions that make American civilization the envy of 
the world, and we see the village from where we stand 
grown into a modern city. Its many furniture factories 
employing thousands of skilled workmen, its broad and 
shady streets, its commanding and cottage homes, its in- 
telligent, up-to-date and industrious citizens, its splendid 
church edifices ; it is noted for good schools and as the 
birthplace of an ex-vice-president and ex-governor, and 
it enjoys not only the distinction but the blessing of being 
a city without a saloon, and thus we see Shelby county 
and Shelbyville, Indiana, where the nineteen years of the 
summer time of our life were spent. Then we cross over 
the line into the county west, and spend twenty years. 
Some of the people living there will tell you that Johnson 
is the best county and Franklin the best city in the State 
— you must be the judge. Johnson county has a national 
reputation, not for statesmen or anything big except in 
price, and that was for one ear of corn. At the corn 
exhibit a few years ago at Chicago, that particular ear 
brought two hundred and fifty dollars, and boosted the 
man who raised it into the Legislature for two terms. 
All the farmers raise seed corn in that county and send 
it to all parts of the corn belt. There are many wealthy 
farmers in this county, but they do not get rich selling 
seed corn. They raise horses, mules, cattle and sheep 
and hogs and wheat, corn, oats and hay. They have 
barns to shelter their stock and in which they garner their 
grain and other farm products. No farm machinery is 
left out in the weather to rust and decay, but stored away 
to be used another season. Good roads, fertile fields, 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 57 

rural mail delivery, telephone facilities to all parts of the 
State make the average farmer in this, as v^^ell as all the 
middle and northern counties in the State, a prince among 
men. Nor must wt fail to mention the southern part of 
the State, w^hile these good people have the eternal hills 
to climb, and probably life for many of them financially 
is a hard road to travel, yet like their neighbors across 
the river, they are happy and the most hospitable people 
in the v^orld. 

Let us tell you of one of those hilly counties. It has 
never been cursed w^ith a saloon inside its borders. No 
denizen of this picturesque domain has ever graced the 
spacious corridors or donned the uniform of the State 
penal institution called the penitentiary. The door of the 
old log jail is seldom closed on a criminal; if perchance 
it does, it is merely to slUow the person incarcerated time 
to reflect on his condition, to let his angry passion become 
normal, to pay his fine and to be a free man once more. 
And, strange to say, eighty per cent, of the voters in this 
county are Democrats, not the kind that are supposed to 
represent the part}^ in Congress, but vote for the interests 
regardless of party pledges, principles or platform. And 
how to account for this model and incomparable county 
in morals and uprightness v^^ould be a mystery, until it 
dawns on us that they belong to the party they say can't 
read. Franklin, the county town of Johnson county, dif- 
fers very little from other towns in the State ; you will 
find the court house in the public square, the churches, 
the public school buildings, the brick streets, the mud 
streets mixed with a little gravel, the beautiful homes 
where the bankers live or the prosperous professional or 
business men, or perchance the retired farmers, and the 
cozy homes of the other class, who are happy and con- 
tented in the possession of even a humble home. Nor 



58 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

must we forget the city hall with its splendid playhouse, 
always filled to the limit, if a stock company comes to 
town, but if Sothern and Marlowe would play Shakespeare 
for one night only, you would not have to stand in line 
for two or three hours to get a ticket, as we have done 
and seen others do in a certain city, and why — we cannot 
tell, unless it is the common people are not able to pay 
the price, and you will notice that it's the common people 
who keep the ball rolling in every avenue of activity, it 
is not the rich, they won't work, they don't have to; not 
the poor, they are always kicking because they have no 
rich relatives that will die and leave them provided for, 
but it's the middle class that make things come to pass. 
Being a college town, we would suppose the higher in 
literary attainment the production, the greater the patron- 
age, but the average college student is not burning money 
or throwing it at birds, they are there for business that 
makes them stronger men and women morally, mentall}' 
and physically. Let us wander through the beautiful 
and well-kept campus, and we would have to wander or 
stand still, for there are no comfortable seats on that 
campus, but on every hand and in many places we read, 
"Keep off the grass," so we move on, as did Coxey's army 
in the days of the panic. The time is early June, the 
hour just before the sun sinks below the western horizon, 
and as we see the students here and there, some standing 
in groups, others sitting on the ground discussing the 
class play to be given by the senior class during com- 
mencement week, or perhaps what great things they will 
do, and as we pass on we see a couple in earnest con- 
versation, and involuntarily the thought comes into our 
mind that that is a "case" and probably fifty per cent, of 
the college cases prove fatal, but as this part of the edu- 
cation is a side issue and not printed in the annual cata- 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 59 

logue, we will contemplate the future of the graduates 
of this institution on the hill, who in a few days will go 
out in the w^orld and whether their aim in life will be to 
make mankind better, or wall they use their talents to 
gain riches and distinction among men and forget the 
better part. College graduates are to be envied for the 
great possibilities they have to do good to their fellow 
men. 

We love to write about the Hoosier State. It was 
our home so long, we would like to tell of its wonderful 
resources, of its gold, its coal, its oil, and natural gas, 
its immense factories, the largest at South Bend and 
Gary, its poets and writers of fiction, its patriotism in 
time of war, etc. How we would like to boost a State 
as good as that, everything about it is good except the 
climate, and it is as uncertain as its politics. Many 
States are just as good, but we do not know them so well. 
If it is such a good State, why don't you stay there? 
You would naturally ask that question, and we will 
answer, a personal matter, but it will do us no harm, and 
may do you good. More than two years ago when in 
beautiful Greenlawn cemetery we laid to rest, to await 
the resurrection morn, the best part of my life, the one 
who for thirty-seven years had been my comfort and in- 
spiration, who had shared my joys and sorrows, who had 
shared with me her plenty in my poverty and the one 
who made me a better man. What I am today, in up- 
rightness of character, in honest motives and integrity, 
I owe to her. Not that I was a bad man, but she made 
strong the weak places in my being by kind counsel and 
Christian example. Sacred are these Avords to the 
memory of a beautiful life. In a spiritual sense, a flower 
of time of rare colors and sweetest fragrance will bloom 
through all eternity. What a precious thought is the 



60 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

immortality of the soul. But the thought that comes to 
the finite mind is, why the happy, pleasant and ideal 
homes should be broken up and those where discord and 
unhappiness reign and hypocrisy and deceit are prac- 
ticed daily should seemingly flourish like the green bay 
tree and make a mockery of true home life? Why is it 
so? It may be a double cord to bind us to the infinite, 
that by the dispensation of a broken home we are passed 
to a higher degree of faith and made to feel "that all 
things work together for good to them that love God." 
But the paramount duty of a man and his wife is to live 
for each other and their families and to make their home 
happy. What does the world care for you? There is 
not much world sympathy with or for those who mourn. 
It is the individual that has the big heart and is always 
reaching out to help the unfortunate. Sometime the 
home ties for you will be severed, for some it will be 
freedom from the petty and trivial trials and troubles 
that make life disappointing and disagreeable, to others 
it will be the breaking of the home ties that are true and 
holy, and when thus broken, the attraction is gone, the 
refined influence is lacking, the very soul cries out for a 
glimpse beyond the veil, but there is no answer to that 
cry, except it be in the assurance of the Master that He 
has gone to prepare a place for us that, where He is, we 
may be also. 

As we sat in our lonely home, we talked of the past, of 
the home life and its joys and sorrows, of kind friends 
and neighbors and their sympathy; we made our plans 
for the future, we would be even more than father and 
daughter, we would be comrades ; we like that word, it 
sounds like you were so congenial, of the same spirit, 
sympathetic and agreeable, try it with your child or 
friend and enjoy the effect; we would be an inspiration 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 61 

to each other; we would travel, read, write, w^ork and 
make the most of life. We talked of the panacea for 
sorrowing and lonesome hearts, of how time works won- 
ders as the days come and go, and how not only time 
but distance is a great factor in the banishment of that 
feeling of reminiscences and causes it to pass away 
gradually like the darkness of the night and the dawn of 
the morning passes away and the earth is made beautiful 
by the glorious sunlight. And we talked of how we 
would make friends amid scenes of beauty and among 
strange people and of the hospitality we would receive 
among strangers. And how as we traveled from one 
beautiful city to another, across rivers and through plains 
and valleys, over hills and mountains, we would enjoy 
it all and be glad. We also knew that some things which 
come to pass in our life we can never forget, and we are 
glad it is so. And our thoughts, like yours, no matter 
where we are or what our environment, go back to that 
silent cemetery to the lonely grave, linger for a moment 
and pass on to that everlasting eternity. This is the sad 
part of life, but is the inevitable. 

After a strenuous life of manual labor, of business or 
of pleasure, when the hands, the mind or the heart, the 
seat of affection grow tired and refuse to perform their 
accustomed duties, then the family physician will pre- 
scribe rest and recreation. Perhaps in a different climate 
you may find the elements that will recreate you after a 
life of toil; vain hope, the change will do you good, but 
the vital power expended from toil of body, brain or heart 
year after year will not return though you eat and drink 
with the fabled gods, though like a seer you could look 
through the veil and see the fabled elysium, though you 
had mastered metaphysics like an Eddy, or had a vision 
like the youngest and most affectionate of our Master's 



62 THE IvURE OF THE PAST 

disciples, none of these will bring back to us buoyancy 
of youth or the strength of middle age, but the change of 
scene and climate is sometimes a wonderful stimulant to 
the overtaxed nervous system which has been brought on 
by too close application to the necessary means for a suc- 
cessful life in any vocation. Hundreds of thousands of 
the American people are on the move every day in the 
year, some for pleasure, some for health and others to 
change their homes. While this is true, there are millions 
who are content to live the quiet, restful home life sur- 
rounded by all that is necessary to make them happy. 
This nomadic life is not all pleasure, but indeed a change. 
And for those who are content to stay at home, and for 
those who have traveled, for those who expect to some 
time visit the Pacific Coast, for the old and the young, 
for the middle aged, for the rich and the poor and for 
every class and condition in life this book was written. 
And if when you have read this far you will go with us 
from Franklin to San Diego, we will tell you things you 
would like to know, tell you of places that will cost you 
time and money to see, tell you of our observations, of 
our impressions, of people, places and things as we saw 
them. There will be nothing personal except it be some 
things told us by others, so read on and you will find the 
last part the best. 

It is very pleasant when you leave home to travel 
knowing that you need not hurry or worry and that you 
can spend thirty days making a trip that could be made 
in six. It seems strange why so many people travel. 
No doubt there are many causes, some for pleasure, some 
for business, some to visit relatives and friends, some that 
they may have something to tell when they return home, 
and again it may be that the travel microbe gets into their 
system and forces them on their journey whether they 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 63 

will or not, or it may be the science of theosoph}^ mystic 
as it may seem, has been demonstrated in a human being 
and the reincarnated soul who struggled in years gone 
by to travel, to see things in the world, to have joy and 
pleasure away from home, to wander and not rest, but 
whose environment was such that no opportunity came 
to travel ; it might have been poverty or sickness or family 
ties, but no matter. Now the soul is free, the bondage 
broken, the transmigrated soul has come into its own, 
and the body a willing servant with its immortal com- 
panion hies away to find relief from the petty cares of 
life among strangers and in strange places. A strange 
belief or opinion, yet there are those who accept it as 
their creed. No matter what the cause or where you go, 
avoid the rush, go slow, take your time, you will get to 
your destination soon enough; besides the comfort and 
recreation, you elude that tired feeling and have time to 
think. And, by the way, thinking is the greatest blessing 
we have in this life. Thought is a wonderful attribute, 
high as the portals of heaven and low as the bottomless 
pit of hades, made holy by temperance and sobriety, 
made unholy and unhappy by sin and immoral living. 
Thoughts, after all, like life are of two kinds, good and 
bad ; take your choice and as you think and act, so shall 
you garner the result some sweet day. 

Comfortably seated on an interurban car running from 
our home city to the capital city, thoughts like these 
came into our mind. Could the Irwin family use their 
surplus money in a better way than to build a road for 
the benefit of the public? They are servants of the peo- 
ple in a way, they build the road, equip it with comfort- 
able cars and power, build stations at every city and 
village they pass through, buy the right of way from the 
farmers and then we, the people, pay a small sum, not 



64 THE tURE OF THE PAST 

more than one and a half cent per mile, board the car 
any hour and we are transported from one point to an- 
other in a pleasant, expeditious and comfortable manner. 
What a privilege, what a blessing and what a convenience 
to the public. These roads are built all over the State 
and in many States millions of dollars have been used by 
capitalists and corporations to develop our great country, 
yet there are some men who howl themselves hoarse for 
fear the capitalists will ruin our country. Let them plant 
their money in railroads and factories, in anything that 
will bring them a fair dividend on their investment, and 
we will enjoy the fruits of their labor and get much 
pleasure out of it. Another thought, being in business a 
long time, we feel justified in the assertion that no other 
corporation in our country could or would furnish to the 
consumer oil, gasoline and other products connected with 
that industry as cheap as the Standard Oil Company, 
and why? Because their system is perfect, several hun- 
dred thousand people are given employment at fair wages 
as distributors of their products. We never hear any 
consumer of oil and gasoline complain of the low prices. 
Whenever a protest is made, it is on account of the 
monopoly. Suppose there had been no Standard Oil 
Company, Chicago University would be to the bad thirty- 
six million dollars. Did it ever occur to you that "God 
moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform," or 
do you believe God has anything to do with endowments? 
Another thought and we will leave the great questions of 
the present day that disturb the equilibrium of our good 
country to be presented by the newspapers, the politicians 
and men in office from the president to road supervisors 
to the dear people. They will make it so plain next year 
during the campaign that even a Hottentot, if he has been 
here long enough to vote, can not fail to cast his ballot in 




Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, Indianapolis, Ind. 

5ee Page 66. 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 65 

the interests of good government anci a revision of the 
tariflf, so that all classes will be satisfied, even the con- 
sumer. There will be many questions to be settled next 
year after the conventions and before the election. First, 
the tariff, then the syndicates that control our food supply, 
then our foreign relations, especially with Japan, then 
labor and capital, then the trusts and conservation of our 
vast resources, all these and more will be settled by our 
spellbinders, as they are every four years. But there is 
one, the paramount question of the present and future, 
that they will never mention in a national campaign, and 
that is the temperance question. Why? Because the 
traffic makes quite a revenue for a billion-dollar Congress 
to distribute, then the farmer could not dispose of his 
corn and other products that can be distilled into liquid 
as poisonous as the secretions of the deadly Upas tree of 
Java ; they might feed corn and rye and surplus apples 
and peaches to hogs or cattle, but it takes more work 
and the price is so uncertain — from six to ten dollars per 
hundred for select in the past few years. Then it would 
be unconstitutional personal liberty, you know; yet the 
Congress can make laws to govern our food supply, such 
as the manufacture of a baking powder with or without 
alum, or tomato catsup with our without a preservative. 
Of course this gives employment to a great many men, 
food inspectors hunting and nosing around all the retail 
stores to find some preparation on the shelf that will not 
comply with the pure food law. If it is poisonous to 
humanity, why not go to the one who manufactures the 
article and put a stop to the unlawful and dangerous prac- 
tice of adulterating our food? We doubt very much 
whether there is as much deleterious substance in ten 
cases of tomato catsup with a certain amount of benzoate 
of soda used as a preservative as there is in one gallon 



66 THE I.URE OF THK PAST 

of alcohol, and yet there is no law to prevent the people 
from taking this poison day after day until they become 
physical wrecks. No, there will be nothing said on the 
temperance question, it is not an issue. But not many 
years hence it will be a mighty burning national issue, 
then the two old parties will sit up and take notice, and 
we are neither a prophet nor a prohi. But enough, we 
are now at the terminal station located in the business 
part of a city that is the hub of the United States ; Boston 
may have been, but is no more, for Indianapolis is near 
the center of population, politically it is the hub city, for 
as the city goes, the State goes, and as the State and New 
York go, so goes the national election, so politically 
and geographically it is worth considering and besides 
the attributes alread}^ mentioned, it is a city worth while. 

INDIANAPOLIS. 

You will find in this up-to-date city one of the finest 
terminal stations in the Middle West, where cars come 
and go to all parts of the State every hour in the day 
and half of the night. Every convenience and comfort 
necessary to the traveling public are found here. A square 
west, the magnificent State House looms up grand 
and sublime, a fit temple in which the executive, judicial 
and legislative bodies can sit and perform the duties 
peculiar to any office they may hold. Two squares east 
of the state house is the soldiers' and sailors' monument, 
which stands colussus-like in the center of a circle, a 
silent tribute to the patriotism and heroism of the Indiana 
boys in blue who gave their lives a sacrifice on the altar 
of the Civil War, and not in vain, for as the years go by 
we see the wisdom of the god of battle giving the victory 
to the boys in blue, and yet we fought on the other side 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 67 

under the command of that intrepid, brave and fearless 
leader, fighting Joe Wheeler, and thought we were doing 
our duty. In passing let us tell what an Indiana veteran 
said about the Civil War, then so far as we are concerned 
the memory of the conflict can sink into oblivion, as it 
ought to have done forty years ago. But you never get 
so far away but some ranter will wave the bloody shirt 
and declare with bulging eyes and swollen neck, his hands 
beating the air in imitation of the paddles of a Holland 
Dutch windmill, that the Emancipation Proclamation 
was of far more vital interest to our country than was the 
Declaration of Independence or even the Constitution of 
the United States. How silly! But the veteran said: 
''I believe if the North and South had been equal in men, 
money, credit and the facilities for carrying on the war, 
they would have been fighting yet, unless the 'Johnnies' 
and the 'Yanks' had all been killed." A fitting eulogy 
on the valor of the brave soldiers who did their duty as 
they saw it both in the Union and Confederate army. 

One square north from the monument you see the 
Federal building, covering a square or block. Step inside 
and you will find one of the most conveniently arranged 
])Ost offices you were ever in. A lobby runs through the 
building and the offices are on either side finished in 
marble. It will impress you as being a building that will 
stand as a monument for years to come, showing the 
generosity and good-will of Uncle Sam for the Hoosiers. 
If you ever visit the capital city of Indiana, you will be 
impressed with its wide streets and avenues, its splendid 
churches, its solid business blocks, its beautiful parks, 
used for rest and recreation rather than to beautify the 
city. Take a spin north from the monument and see the 
ideal homes ; this in indeed a home city, clean and health- 
ful. Compare the per capita net debt of seventeen dollars 



68 THE I.URE OF THE PAST 

and forty-three cents of this city with New York City's 
per capita net debt of one hundred fifty-seven dollars and 
seventy-four cents, it looks like healthy finance in the 
home city. You could spend several weeks in this capi- 
tal city and see things worth while, or if you are looking 
for a large city in which to make your home, this city 
will suit you, it is not immense like Chicago, but big 
enough for comfort. Two hundred and thirty-four thou- 
sand people is no mean city, wherever located. And 
while we sit in our comfortable and cosy room in Los 
Angeles, California, and read the papers stating that yes- 
terday, the third of July, 1911, the mercury stood at the 
100° mark in our home city, while here it was 66° and 
last night 55°, we were impressed with the thought that 
while you can not live on climate alone, it is a wonderful 
factor for comfort. One thought more and we will leave 
Indianapolis for the Pacific Coast. 

In the Cosmopolitan Magazine for June, 1911, in an 
article entitled, "What are you going to do about it?" 
written by Alfred Lewis, are these words, ''How many 
men are in the Senate on their merits? How many on 
their money, or some corporation's money? Had merit, 
had popular worth or popular preference been the test, 
would a toga have been given to vacuous Guggenheim? 
— the unspeakable Root? — the dingy Kern? — the inade- 
quate Pomerene? — the oily Bailey? — the frigid Lodge? 
— the meager Wetmore? But why extend an inquiry that 
should run through half a Senate roll call?" What we 
would like to know is, why John W. Kern does not merit 
the toga he wears? And why if popular worth or popular 
preference had been the test, he should not have been 
elected to the Senate? Mr. Kern received the unanimous 
vote of his party at the State convention showing that 
he was preferred to any one else. If there is any man 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 69 

in the Senate today that merits the office and deserves 
what he got that man is Senator Kern. Why? Because 
he has always been a faithful party man — no Boliver 
Buckner democracy about Senator Kern. He is honest 
and upright, we have known him for years and admire 
him for his honesty and integrity, his sobriety and devo- 
tion to his party; even in defeat he appealed to the com- 
mon people and they said he is the logical candidate for 
the senate and we all rejoice that he has come into his 
own. But why call him "dingy" Kern, just as soon be 
called dirty Dago. Was it his clothes or his physique 
that called forth the epithet. Must a man be a Vorhees 
or a Taft in stature to be great? If so, where will our 
beloved Governor Marshall stand? Mr. Lewis, you owe 
Senator Kern an apology and you should lose no time in 
making it. If some of our fluent and sometime versatile 
writers could be made to "eat crow," they would be more 
careful what and about whom they wrote. In the case of 
Senator Kern it was uncalled for and the writer can 
excuse himself only by saying he was very foolish for 
writing such stufif for publication. 

ST. LOUIS. 

The distance from this city to St. Louis over the New 
York Central is two hundred and fifty-three miles through 
many up-to-date cities and towns. As we look out over 
the fertile fields as far as the eye can see, we remember 
that Illinois is the banner State in the Union for the pro- 
duction of corn and oats, then it has Chicago and Cannon 
and Lorimer, all powerful factors in bringing this great 
State to the fore in finance and politics. Now we are at 
one of the largest, most conveniently arranged and most 
comfortable union stations in the Middle West. St. Louis 



70 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

can well be proud of this magnificent building. The 
tourist, if waiting for a train, can spend several hours 
looking at the immensity of the thing and never grow 
tired at all. 

This city is noted for several things worth mentioning, 
for its very narrow streets, near the river, its beautiful 
parks, its broad and well-kept streets and avenues on the 
higher ground, and it is the fourth city in population in 
the United States, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand 
and twenty-nine people living in an area of sixty-one 
square miles, when some cities with half the population 
are scattered over an area of a hundred square miles or 
more, A very compact city, indeed. But what impresses 
the stranger most forcibly in coming to this city is 
Anheuser-Busch beer, Liggett and Myers' famous brands 
of tobacco, and Swift & Co. packing houses, just as we 
see Chicago a city of mail order business. New York City 
a distributor of emigrants and searcher for dutiable 
goods, and Philadelphia a staid, old and immaculate 
Quaker city. The people of Missouri are no doubt proud 
of their metropolis and do not have to be shown that it 
is a fair city. 

KANSAS CITY. 

The distance from St. Louis to Kansas City is two hun- 
dred and sixty-four miles over the Burlington route. The 
Kansas City depot is hardly worth mentioning. Why a 
city of two hundred and fifty thousand people, and a great 
railroad center, must be humiliated and made ashamed of 
the facilities for the accommodation of the traveling pub- 
lic is more than we can understand. Such a mob ! we 
hope never to be in another like it. It reminded us of 
the World's Fair at Chicago on Chicago day, not as many 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 71 

people, of course, but about ten times as many people as 
should have been in the station at one time for comfort. 
We said to a young lady whose home is in this city, we 
were not favorably impressed with the city and felt like 
we wanted to get away on the next train. "Oh !" she said, 
"you must not judge our city by the depot and its sur- 
roundings, we have a beautiful city. It is noted for its 
boulevards, its fine homes, its picturesque and fascinating 
topography, and I want to tell you in the near future we 
are going to have a new union station that will be in line 
with the present-day progress and one of which we will 
not be ashamed." 

From Kansas City up the Missouri river through St. 
Joseph to Rulo, a distance of one hundred and five miles, 
we are six hundred and twenty miles from Indianapolis, 
and due west from Columbus, Ohio. Here we leave the 
Missouri river, and glad we are, for there is nothing 
about this river that charms the tourist; swift, muddy 
and dangerous-looking, changing its channel every day, 
the water swirling and eddying, then swiftly gliding on 
and on to be at last taken to the bosom of the Father of 
Waters, to be transformed, purified and made a part of 
that majestic, placid and mighty river. From Rulo, 
Nebraska, the Burlington road runs nearly due west to 
Denver, a distance of five hundred and fifty-nine miles. 
Passing along the southern border of Nebraska our 
thoughts wander to then and now, and we note the 
change. Stretching away on every hand, a fair domain, 
we see splendid farms on which are built comfortable 
homes, substantial outbuildings in which to garner the 
three hundred million bushels of wheat, corn and oats 
raised annually in this fertile State of Nebraska. Cities, 
towns and villages are in evidence on every hand. On 
and on we go until the sameness of the scene becomes 



72 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

monotonous. We are glad after a night's rest to reach 
Denver at 10:30 a. m. It seemed like we had been cross- 
ing a level plain, but not so, for we had passed from an 
altitude of nine hundred feet at the Alissouri river to 
over four thousand feet higher at Denver. 

DENVER. 

Denver, the capital, the railroad and commercial center 
of the State of Colorado, has a population of two hundred 
and thirteen thousand. And when we think of Colorado 
being the centennial State and Denver being less than a 
lialf century old, we marvel at its phenomenal growth. 
We had an impression that Denver was a city set on a 
hill and not different from other cities. We found it 
situated in the valley of the South Platte on the eastern 
bank at a point where the one time rolling prairie land 
gradually sloped to the westward and several miles east 
of the base of the Rocky Mountains. Take an auto sight- 
seeing car and after you have seen Denver you will agree 
with us that it is the finest and best built city you have 
ever seen. It is made of brick and stone and iron. No 
wooden buildings are allowed inside the city limits. The 
mountains extend north and south as far as the eye can 
trace their rugged heights. The highest points, Long's 
Peak to the north, Pike's Peak to the south, and the 
"dome of the continent," Gray's Peak, in the center, are 
in full view towering far above the tops of the surround- 
ing mountains. 

The mountains are grand, majestic and sublime. They 
are not like the eastern ranges; you do not see the ivy, 
laurel, cedar and pine trees in profusion that make the 
eastern mountains a thing of beauty. But the Rockies 
are what the name implies — rocky, rough, rugged and 




Swinging Bridge, Royal Gorge, Grand Canyon of the Arkansas. 

See Page 74. 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 73 

immense. At Denver we leave the Burlington road and 
take the Denver and Rio Grande, said to be and no doubt 
is the finest scenic route crossing the Rockies. This train 
or road takes you to Ogden, Utah, a distance of seven 
hundred and five miles. 

As we go south, running parallel with the grand old 
mountain range, which looms up twelve or fifteen miles 
on our right, fifty miles south of Denver, we cross the 
Arkansas divide, where the water flows north into the 
Platte and south into the Arkansas river. We stop at 
Colorado Springs and visit Manitou and drink from the 
famous soda and iron springs. From here starts the cog 
road, by which the ascent is made to the summit of Pike's 
Peak. Manitou is a picturesque place, nestling at the 
base of Pike's Peak. A little creek ripples through the 
place, cottages are hid away among the trees, rocks and 
gulches. Store after store filled with curios are in evi- 
dence as you traverse the one street and many of the 
buildings seem to be a part of the rugged rocks. 

Colorado Springs is a quiet city of thirty thousand 
people and like many western cities depends largely on 
tourists and health seekers for a living, yet there is much 
wealth in this city ; fine homes and an air of prosperity is 
prevalent everywhere you go. From here you have a 
magnificent view of Pike's Peak. As we gaze on its 
snow-capped summit pointing to the sky, over fourteen 
thousand feet above the sea level, we are awed by its 
immensity. But as we turn away, the slogan of the gold 
seekers in years gone by comes to our mind, and we can 
hear them say in voices hoarse and vibrant, "To Pike's 
Peak or bust." There are many attractive surroundings 
to this famous resort which the tourist will not fail to see 
and enjoy. 

Going south, the next city of importance is Pueblo, a 



74 THE I.URK OF THE PAST 

city of forty-five thousand people and called the "Pitts- 
burg of the West." Steel works and smelters for the 
reduction of gold and silver ore contribute to the pros- 
perity of the city. The mineral palace contains, it is said, 
the most complete and attractive collection of mineral 
specimens and ores in the world. We have gone south 
from Denver one hundred and twenty miles. From here 
we travel a northwesterly course to Salt Lake City, but 
before you get there you will think you are traveling 
every direction under the sun, for the road follows the 
Arkansas river from Pueblo to the summit at Tennessee 
Pass, over eleven thousand feet above sea level, a long- 
distance and is a very crooked road. Here we are at 
Canon City and enjoy some of the luscious fruit raised in 
this beautiful valley. The city is rightly named, for it 
stands at the entrance to the Grand Canon of the Arkan- 
sas river. Here is located the State Penitentiary of 
Colorado, and the warden, Mr. Thomas J. Tynan, has 
been more talked of and written about than any other 
man holding a like appointment in any penal institution 
in this country; and why? Because Mr. Tynan believes 
that the greater number of convicts in his prison are not 
habitual criminals from choice. He blames drink (the 
accursed traffic again) for ninety per cent of the crime 
committed by the prisoners in his care. He gives his pris- 
oners a "square deal," works them out doors in building 
roads, puts them on their honor and treats them like 
men instead of brutes, and makes them feel like they may 
yet be somebody. These prisoners, many of them per- 
haps, never had their mothers lay their hands on their 
heads and say as they left their homes, ''Good-bye; I 
will pray for you and I want you to be somebody." We 
all pity the boys or girls who have no ties that bind them 
to something good in their childhood days. One man 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 75 

never forgot when he left home to come to America, poor 
and friendless ; his mother laid her hand on his head and 
said, "Good-bye. Horace ; I want you to come back some- 
body." 

Soon after leaving Canon City we were invited to take 
a seat in an observation car as the train would soon enter 
the Royal Gorge, in the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, 
which is the most famous canon in the world. Here the 
granite walls are twenty-six hundred feet high, smooth 
and unbroken by tree or shrub. Man becomes dwarfed 
and dumb in the sublime scene, and nature exhibits the 
power she possesses. At one point the gorge is but ten 
feet wide, where the road bed had to be built out from 
the walls, and the famous hanging bridge constructed. 
While nature has ever been the servant of man, it has 
also provided a way for him to overcome all obstacles. 
In this case had not the Arkansas river plowed its way 
through this rocky pass and from the great divide its 
source down to the fertile valley thousands of feet below, 
there would have been no road built through Tennessee 
Pass and down the Grand River Qn the western slope to 
the valley on the opposite side o^ what seems like the 
spinal column of this great continent. A distance of two 
hundred miles or more you see rocks and rocks and moun- 
tains in any direction you look and pass through sand 
dunes and barren plains, fertile valleys made so by irri- 
gation, and then more rocks. Why go to Egypt to see 
the pyramids when you can see them by the score from 
Denver to the Pacific Coast? As we pass through this 
sublime majestic scenery, we think of Sinai, Nebo and the 
Mount of Transfiguration and feel that we must go to the 
mountain top to meet our Creator, where nature rules 
supreme, let our minds soar above the highest peaks and 
he will meet us and give us peace. Then return to the 



76 THE I.URE OF THE PAST 

valley, as did our Master, to work for the upbuilding of 
His kingdom. When you travel on this route from Den- 
ver to Salt Lake City, expect great things in scenic 
beauty and nature's grandeur and you will not be dis- 
appointed. 

As we sweep around and through the Rock}- Moun- 
tains and gaze from the car window at their rugged im- 
mensity, their grandeur and vastness, their colossal and 
gigantic appearance, we are reminded of a story we 
heard of a German farmer in Illinois, and we wondered 
whether on seeing these mountains he would exclaim 
"the mountains show the handiwork of God," or would 
he be indifferent to their greatness as he had been to other 
creations of man and nature. 

The German farmer had a friend in Chicago who had 
insisted on him coming to the city to spend a week, and 
told him he would show him the city in all its metropol- 
itan greatness. So one summer in the month of August, 
after the wheat and oats crop had been safely garnered, 
and being too early for the fall plowing and sowing, the 
farmer concluded he would visit his friend in the city. 
The next morning after his arrival his friend took him 
to State street. Pointing to the sky-scrapers, he said : 
''Did you ever expect to see such buildings over forty 
stories high? What a magnificent sight; nothing like it 
this side of New York! Isn't it grand?" But there was 
no response from the German, except ''Yah." Then he 
took him to the beautiful parks for which this city is 
famous. At night they went to one of the best theatres. 
There was no sign on the countenance nor speech of 
approval by the stolid German that he appreciated what 
he had seen or heard. "Well," said his friend to him- 
self, after they had parted for the night, "there is nothing 
here that interests him or causes him even a moment of 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 77 

joy or enthusiasm. I will take him to New York and see 
if I can show him anything that will surprise him into 
an exclamation of wonder." The next day after they ar- 
rived at the metropolis of the East he took him to see 
the Bartholdi statue of the Goddess of Liberty. He took 
much pains to explain to his friend the greatness of the 
attraction, but there was no response except "yah." 
After seeing New York he said : "I will try him once 
more, and then I am done." So they pulled out for the 
Niagara Falls. "Now," he thought, "my friend will 
surely manifest some surprise and wonder when he be- 
holds the grandest sight in the United States." So the 
next morning they went below the falls, where he could 
see them in all their grandeur and unchecked power. The 
city man said to his friend: "Now, wake up and behold 
one of the grandest sights in the world. See that water 
that pours over that precipice with a power that would, if 
utilized, turn all the machinery in the world. Man, Man ! 
did you ever dream of such a sight? Just look at it as the 
water comes tumbling down." The German cast his eyes 
up at the falls and said in that impassive, dull and slug- 
gish manner which is a characteristic of the race : "I 
don't see anything to hinder the water from coming 
over." • 



SALT LAKE CITY. 

Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, in some ways is a 
beautiful city. The streets are wide, bordered with shade 
trees and laid out at right angles. The squares are 
larger than the average city. As we see the city in an 
auto, we are more impressed with the guide's talk than 
wath the propelling power of his machine, for it balked on 
every up grade, but the guide's tongue loosened to the 



78 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

occasion, making the ride interesting- and saying things 
worth while. In passing the Board of Trade building 
he said : "Here's where many men have gotten rich in 
a few days — in experience." We passed the home of one 
of Brigham Young's widows, who is over eighty years 
old and still Young. There are sixty churches in the 
city and only three saloons — for every church. Temple 
Square is the principal point of interest to the visitor 
to the city of the saints. In it stand the magnifiecent 
Alormon Temple, the Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall. 
The Temple is one of the grandest and costliest ecclesi- 
astical structures in the country, begun in 1853 and com- 
pleted in 1893 at a cost of nearly six million dollars. The 
Mormon Tabernacle is one of the largest buildings for 
religious worship in the world. It is one of the archi- 
tectural puzzles of the world, famous for its marvelous 
accoustic properties. We stood in the balcony, over two 
hundred feet away from our guide, who dropped a pin 
on a table which we heard distinctly ; he rubbed his hands 
together and asked us in a whisper if we heard — and we 
did ; it's wonderful. The Tabernacle is used for worship 
and seats eight thousand people. But the Temple, alas ! 
no gentile is allowed to enter its sacred portals, and as 
we stood and gazed at this magnificent and beautiful 
structure, with its many spires pointing heavenward, we 
wondered why this great edifice had been erected. If a 
church, why not its door open to the world? Then the 
thought came, would these saints have a building not 
made with hands in the Eternal City set apart for their 
especial benefit? Since I was a boy Mormonism has 
been to the fore, year after year, and with other isms that 
one cannot approve, fostered by some man or woman who 
thinks they are going to inaugurate a system of worship 
that will transcend — vea, rise far above anv that has ever 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 79 

been in the world — and with the thought of the blessed 
Master as your guide and counsellor, you turn away from 
this city of saints, this city of mystery, this city to our 
minds one of deception ; this is our impression, and glad 
we are to get away, for while the gentiles are in the 
majority, the big things of the city are stamped Mormon 
on every hand. The depot at Salt Lake City is one of the 
finest buildings on the route, not the largest of course, but 
of the best material. 

From Salt Lake City we skirt the eastern shore of the 
great Salt Lake for a distance of thirty-six miles and 
come to Ogden. A glimpse at the lake and your eyes 
turn not, a body of water surrounded by mountains and 
valleys. The density of the salt makes the water so 
buoyant that sinking is impossible and, of course, float- 
ing is the favorite pastime. The average depth of the 
water is twenty feet, the length is one hundred and twen- 
ty-six miles by forty-five in width. The lake has no out- 
let for the water which is continually flowing in from sev- 
eral rivers and evaporation absorbs the vast volume. It 
is said that the w^ater in the lake gets higher as the years 
go by. 

At Ogden we change from the Denver and Rio Grande, 
bag and baggage, to the Southern Pacific Railroad. 
The Denver and Rio Grande has carried us over some 
rough roads, but they are careful and have few accidents 
on this road. From Ogden we cross the Great Salt Lake, 
a distance of thirty miles, on trestle and fill-ins, and now 
if one could go to sleep, say, at nine o'clock p. m. and not 
waken until three p. m. the next day, it would be as well, 
for about all we see for several hundred miles is vast 
desolation, barren plains, gray and reddish rocks, glinting 
beds of alkali, sage brush with mounds of sand around 
them held by their fibrous roots, and at long intervals we 



80 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

see green pastures, cattle and horses grazing in the field? 
and the smoke curling from the rancher's cabin. No won- 
der they tell us so often and at many places that "Lit- 
tle drops of water on little grains of sand make a mighty 
difference in the price of western land." And that re- 
minds us of a story we heard or read in a magazine : "A 
man owned an apple orchard in one of those arid states 
where a shower of rain was a luxury. One day the long 
looked for shower came in its misty, fog-like gentleness. 
The hired man, who was from the East, where, when it 
does rain it comes down in torrents, went on with his 
work, unmindful of the scant precipitation. When, finally, 
he went to the house for his meal, his employer said to 
him : 'Why did you not come to the house when it was 
raining?' 'Oh,' he replied, 'I don't mind a rain like that.' 
'Well, the next time it rains,' said his boss, 'I want you to 
come to the house, for the ground needs the rain that 
soaks into your clothes.' " 

If the state of Nevada had to depend on its agriculture 
and it alone, it would be slim living, but it is rich in min- 
erals, and it has Reno, a city that gets much free adver- 
tising, for it has been made famous by divorces and prize 
fights ; but we must sit up and take notice, for we are 
right in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 
and in a short time we are in California. 

These mountains differ widely from the Rockies. We 
were impressed with their beauty more than their grand- 
eur. We saw the fern and laurel, the pine and cedar 
around the horse shoe, one side several hundred feet 
higher than the other. Slowly we go up and up,, then we 
look down and see beautiful Donner Lake, called the 
"Gem of the Sierras," three and one-half miles long euid 
an average width of one mile and at the deepest point 
sounded is about two hundred feet deep. It is surrounded 



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THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 81 

on three sides by towering mountains covered with a 
growth of fir, spruce and pine trees. We look across or 
back far below and see the winding course wt have fol- 
lowed; up and up we go, higher and higher toils the 
train through the snow sheds and tunnels until the sum- 
mit is reached. The highest point passed by the South- 
ern Pacific is seven thousand feet above the level of the 
sea, and soon we are go'ng down the wcscern slope, now 
hanging over the precipices, now winding around Cape 
Horn, said to be one of the grandest scenes on the Ameri- 
can continent, down and down until the valley is reached, 
c'nd in a few hours we find ourselves at the capital city of 
California. We can hardly conceive the wonderful change 
from an altitude of over seven thousand feet at the sum- 
mit, which is not the highest elevation of these pictur- 
esque mountains, for bleak and bare of verditre rise the 
peaks around the summit to an altitude of over ten thou- 
sand feet. Scattering hardy spruce and fir are In the 
mountain gorges, where rest the eternal snows that have 
lain for ages hidden away from the sun's rays in these 
deep mountain gulches. From everlasting snow to a semi- 
tropical climate an altitude of thirty feet in a few hours' 
ride, a distance of one hundred and fifty-five miles, it is 
wonderful. We were impressed wnth the beaiuy and 
pleasing effect of the orange and olive groves, the daz- 
zling flowers, the stately pines, the magnolias, the euca- 
lyptus trees that shed their bark instead of their leaves, 
the pepper trees with their dense foliage, the acacia and 
many others that make the homes, parks and public 
grounds veritable Edens in appearance. 



82 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

SACRAMENTO. 

The city of Sacramento has a remarkable history, r-iv- 
aged by fire and flood more than once. Not only have 
they rebuilt their city, but have built the ground on 
which it stands ten feet higher than the original site, and 
it stands today a quiet, prosperous city, showing v'hat 
the perseverance and indomitable will of the American 
citizen can do. The streets are broad and run at right 
angles. There is a quiet, restful beauty about this city 
that makes one feel like it would be a good place to stay. 
The State Capitol grounds impress one as being the most 
beautiful ever, covering a space of four squares. The 
splendid building in the center is a feast for the eyes, 
a thing of beauty and a joy to behold; not so with the 
park on the north ; there is not much beauty there, but 
it makes the contrast greater. The Potter art gallery is 
worth going to see ; what a pity that it was not located 
on the park near Capitol Square. Our impressions of the 
fine paintings were not of the highest by the time we 
got back to the center of the city. See Sutter's Fort and 
we are ready to leave the city, not that we are tired of 
staying, but as tourists we must see all we can. 

As we go from Sacramento to Stockton, a distance of 
forty miles, we get a glance of the beautiful California 
valleys, with which the state abounds and without which 
the state would be no better than a desert. We were im- 
pressed with the magnitude of the grape industry, car 
after car loaded with grapes standing on the side tracks 
ready to be taken to the wineries to be made into old port. 
These grapes were not in boxes, but piled on the flat cars 
like loads of gravel. Stockton, a prosperous city of 
thirty-five thousand, is not dififerent from other cities 
except its wide streets and clean appearance. What im- 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 83 

pressed us most and gave more real comfort and rest than 
in any city we have ever been was a cafe, with a read- 
ing room and Hbrary. It was not a small affair; on one 
side was the ladies' entrance, easy chairs on which to 
rest, papers and magazines to read ; on the other side 
was the gentlemen's entrance, tables covered with papers 
and magazines, plenty of chairs, and quiet and order per- 
vaded the place. This was separated by screens from the 
dining hall. Here one can get a good meal and a hun- 
dred people or more could be served at the same time, and 
we wondered why there were not more such places in 
other cities. A tired person would walk several squares 
to find a place to rest for half an hour ; this is a drawing 
card or, rather, a good advertisement. In our trip from 
Stockton to Oakland we cross the Contra Costa range 
of mountains. They are not high like some we have 
crossed, but the altitude is nearly one thousand feet, while 
at Stockton it is twenty-three feet, which means a high 
grade to climb. 

It has always seemed strange why railroad companies 
build their depots in the most unsightly part of the city. 
The first impression made on a stranger's mind on enter- 
ing a city is the one that lasts ; perhaps not a safe cri- 
terion, yet it is true. We have in mind one place that 
far exceeds the city in beauty, and when the name of the 
city is mentioned the panorama unrolled and made to 
pass before the mind is the style of the structure of the 
depot and its beautiful surroundings, and for the benefit 
of those who are interested will say that place is Santa 
Barbara, of which we will tell you later. Yes, the first 
impression is the one that lasts, and many times the one 
on which you can depend. 

When we get ofif the train at First and Broadway in 
Oakland we are impressed with the opposite of beautiful 



84 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

in the surroundings, and yet Oakland is an up-to-date city 
with a population of one hundred and sixty thousand. 
It has fine business blocks, elegant church edifices and 
beautiful residences. Oakland, Berkeley and Piedmont 
are so closely related that one cannot tell where the di- 
viding line is located. 

Berkeley is the home of the State University of Cali- 
fornia, nestling at the foot of the Berkeley hills. Here we 
find a college campus, unique and primitive in many ways, 
paths leading in every direction, across bridges, through 
groves of trees and shrubs of many varieties, flowers and 
ferns, cactus and palms in profusion ; it is a lovely place. 
The impression made on our mind by these grounds is 
one of satisfaction and lasting remembrance, for it is so 
different from any we had ever seen. Up on the hillside, 
hid away as though it was ashamed to be seen, is the 
Greek Theater. It reminds us of the Coliseum at Rome 
in the time of Nero, on a small scale. It is made of con- 
crete ; mother earth is its base and the firmament is its 
cover. It seats nine thousand people and its accoustic 
properties are unsurpassed. Nature formed the place for 
the Greek Theater and W. R. Hearst furnished the money 
to build the seats and stage. It is surrounded with forest 
trees of many kinds. It is worth climbing the hill to see. 
And Piedmont Park must be seen to be appreciated as 
well as the palatial residences at the base and up on the 
side of the Contra Costa mountain, east of Oakland. 

We take a street car in front of the City Plall in Oak- 
land for Alameda, When we get on the bridge built 
across the estuary the car stops ; what is the trouble ? 
We see now ; the bridge swings around to let a steamer 
or two pass through, and while we wait these thoughts 
come crowding through the mind. If we were in busi- 
ness we would be worried about waiting on this bridge, 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 85 

but as we are only tourists, with more time than anything 
else, it makes no difference to us how long they wait. And 
we wondered why there was not a subway connecting 
these two cities, built by the Southern Pacific, for in- 
stance — they seem to have plenty of money — and the 
newspapers say the Harriman interests control about 
everything worth while on the coast, and we thought 
of what we heard on our trip, beginning with Denver, in 
every city to San Diego ; some one pointed out the homee 
of the millionaires in every city we passed through. They 
seemed to be as numerous as grasshoppers in a Kansas 
corn field. They live in fine residences, separate and apart 
from the rest of humanity. In the middle West we do not 
hear anything about millionaires ; no doubt they have 
them there, but they are not so much talked about as ii? 
the lar West. 

But no one said anything about the common people or 
the poor, except in Salt Lake City the guide pointed out 
the cabin of an old darky on one of the beautiful resi- 
dence streets, who refused to sell for love or money, and 
that old house no doubt will stand as a monument 
against progress and modern civilization until the owner 
climbs the golden stairs and enters the new Jerusalem. 
It must be nice to be a millionaire; we would like to be 
one. If we were we would buy the Southern Pacific and 
put a stop to the graft and avaricious propensity of that 
great corporation, for if all you hear and read of this 
monster on the coast is true it is surely a holy terror and 
a menace to civilization ; but I am free to confess that we 
were treated nicely while traveling on this road. The 
trainmen and agents were uniformly kind and courteous 
at all times. We have just read in the papers that the 
state has come into its own by or through the election last 
fall, the corporations have been dethroned from control 



86 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

of the state, and the milenium politically was an assured 
fact. So mote it be. 

But the bridge is closed and we rush into Alameda like 
a whirlwind, making up for the time lost at the bridge. 
As w^e pass through this city of twenty-five thousand 
people we are impressed with its beauty, its quietness and 
wide, clean streets. Alameda has more beautiful homes 
with well kept lawns filled with lovely flowers, more 
shade trees and less business than any city of its size 
we have ever seen. When the steam power trains that 
circle the island every half hour are replaced by the 
electric, you can almost hear yourself think. A gentle- 
man from this city was introduced to a lady student of 
the State University and he told her he lived in Alameda. 
"Oh, yes," she said, "in the 'city of the living dead,' " and, 
after all, Alameda is just what it was intended for — a 
quiet, healthy, attractive and pleasant residence city, 
with plenty of good schools and numerous churches. The 
only blot to mar the beauty of this fair city is the many 
saloons that do business seven days in the week. What 
a shame. But perhaps the city needs the money paid for 
licenses to keep the schools going — some places they call 
it blood money. 

SAN FRANCISCO. 

We take a car in Alameda for the pier which extends 
out into the bay for more than a mile. Here we pass 
through the ferry building and go into the ferry boat, 
either on the upper or lower deck. What splendid boats ; 
there is room for hundreds of passengers, comfortably 
seated.. The palatial appearance as we enter one of 
these boats for the first time leaves a pleasing impres- 
sion. As we leave the pier, Goat Island looms up about 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 87 

a mile out in the bay on our right Hke a Gibraltar. It is 
three hundred and forty feet high and contains three 
hundred and fifty acres and belongs to the United States. 
To our left is the bay, in front of the Golden Gate, and the 
island we see beyond is Alcatraz, the military prison for 
the western half of the United States. And the soldier 
who insults the dignity of Uncle Sam by desertion or 
other cause and comes to this island to serve his sentence 
never escapes. It is a Siberia, surrounded by water. 

We are at the ferry slip and pass out through the com- 
modious ferry building and stand looking up Market 
street in San Francisco, the metropolis of California. We 
must not judge this great city and its nearly half a mil- 
lion people by our first impressions. It would not be just 
or proper. Every nationality on earth, inhabitants from 
every clime seem to be around and we wonder what these 
thousands of loafers do for a living, dirty and blear-eyed 
denizens of the slums. There is a feeling of fear and pity 
that comes over us that we want to get away. Anywhere 
is better than in this good natured but motley mob. But 
there is something fascinating about the heterogeneous 
crowd of humanity, and as one strolls along the dock and 
for a few squares back and sees the vice and degradation 
on every hand one is filled with compassion for these poor, 
weak men, who are sorely tempted by the accursed sa- 
loons that seem to be the prevailing business in this 
part of the city. No wonder this city gave such an over- 
whelming majority against woman suffrage. No doubt 
thousands of these men have no higher conception of life 
than to drink whiskey or beer and have long since for- 
gotten their mother was a woman. Seeing this part of 
the city reminds us of a story of a Methodist preacher's 
five-year-old boy. W^hen the preacher returned from the 
annual conference he told his family he had been ap- 



88 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

pointed to a church in San Francisco and they would 
move across the bay. The night before they moved the 
Httle boy, after sending his usual petition to the throne 
of grace, in conclusion said : *'And now, dear Lord, good- 
bye, we are going to move to San Francisco." 

So we take a car and go out on Market street and get 
ofif at the Emporium, and we feel like we were in another 
city. The hustle and bustle, trade and traffic of these 
busy people along Market street and on the streets run- 
ning at right angles from one side of Market street and 
not at right angles on the other showed plainly the first 
impression would not hold good at all times. If Golden 
Gate Park could have been made on the bay instead of 
the ocean, what a different view when the stranger came 
through the ferry building. We rode on the cars and 
climbed the hills, went to Chinatow^n and out to the 
Aviation Meet and almost saw the biplane light on the 
battle ship and fly away, but the most pleasing sight to us 
was the Golden Gate Park and the Pacific Ocean. It is 
useless to try to describe our feelings. 

As we gaze out over the dark blue ocean for the first 
time the waves of grief beat in on our lonely heart, and 
like a fog creeping up from the bay to hide us came our 
one great sorrow, and this beautiful poem of Tennyson 
same into our mind. Never before did we realize so fully 
the great love he had and the sorrow he felt for his friend 
buried near the sea : 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 89 

**Break, break, break 

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea ! 
And I would that my tongue could utter 
The thoughts that arise in me. 

O, well for the fisherman's boy 

That he shouts with his sister at play! 

O, well for the sailor lad 

That he sings in his boat on the bay! 

And the stately ships go on 

To their haven under the hill ; 
But, O, for a touch of a vanished hand 

And a sound of a voice that is still. 

Break, break, break. 

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! 
But the tender grace of a day that is dead 

Will never come back to me." 

When the tourist comes to San Francisco in 1915 and 
wanders through the park, where the great Panama Ex- 
position ought to be held and then goes out to the Clif¥ 
House and gazes out over the mighty deep, the picture 
will come into his mind of Balboa on yon mountain top, 
kneeling and with arms uplifted and hands pointing 
toward heaven as with grateful heart he utters the one 
word, "Eureka." Take a look at the seals a few hun- 
dred feet away, then return to the park and we could 
spend days and days looking at the many interesting and 
lovely things kept here for the benefit of the people. 
San Francisco is rugged and irregular, it could not be 
anything else, for those eternal hills are there to stay and 
to make a city like this it must be built on the hill, for the 
valley is full. But they have the finest harbor in the 



90 THE IvURE OF THE PAST 

world, the transbay cities are their close neig-hbors. 
They have the finest and largest city park in the world, 
and all the water around it that they need, so what else 
could they ask except a hearty response to the invitations 
they will send out to the world to visit a modern and up- 
to-date World's Exposition. 

There are many interesting things to see in and around 
this metropolis of the West. The United States Mint, 
Chinatown, The Presidio, a large military reservation 
containing twelve hundred acres and overlooking the 
Golden Gate, Sutro Heights, Seal Rocks, the Cliif House, 
the Ocean Boulevard, and the beautiful Golden Gate 
Park are all worth seeing. The tourist can spend sev- 
eral weeks here and see something new every day. As 
we cannot go any farther west on the land, we will turn 
our faces toward the southeast and travel down the coast 
from Oakland to San Diego. We are rather anxious 
to see the much talked about and much boosted Southern 
California. 

We take a train at Oakland. Of course, it is a South- 
ern Pacific train. We run down to San Jose, pronounced 
San Houza ; we wonder why words are not pronounced 
like they are spelled, or spelled like they are pronounced 
in this western country. What if they are Spanish, we 
like English better. The Santa Clara Valley, in which 
San Jose is situated, has been made famous for its fruits 
and especially for the quality of the prunes. All dealers 
know the Santa Clara prunes are the best in the world. 
Fine apricots, peaches, pears and cherries are grown in 
this valley. The city is up to date, good streets and fine 
business blocks, and judging from the residences we 
conclude there are some of the residents, if they are not 
millionaires, they are very prosperous in this world's 
goods. In stepping from the street to the sidewalk, we 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 91 

are confronted with the name of the street indelibly en- 
graved in the cement, a new innovation and a decided 
improvement over the old way. Not being in the city 
on Saturday night, we did not have the pleasure of see- 
ing the tower lighted, but we could imagine how beautiful 
it would be. We asked a boy what it was for and why 
the lights were not turned on. He said that they turned 
the lights on of Saturday nights to let the people know 
this was San Jose. The splendid depot at this place 
makes a good impression and we were not disappointed 
when we saw the city. Another thing of interest we saw 
in the depot was an exhibit of the products of the val- 
ley, which the tourist could examine while waiting for 
the train. Our next stop was at San Luis Obispo. 

Between these two cities, a distance of two hundred 
miles, we see some fertile valleys, but for miles and 
miles the countr}^ is as barren as the Nevada desert ; huge 
rocks and low mountain ranges are seen on every hand, 
through tunnels and over the Coast Range Mountains 
down to the last named city. One night at this place is 
enough, for as the name would imply, it was, is now 
and always will be Spanish, unless some American prog- 
ress is infused into this sleepy old town. Just as the day 
was breaking and long before the majority of the quiet 
people of this quiet town had roused from their slumber 
we had breakfasted and boarded a train that came thun- 
dering in from over the mountain and we are off for 
Santa Barbara. Soon we are at the coast ; here we see for 
the first time from the car window a sight not soon for- 
gotten — the great Pacific Ocean on our right, the Coast 
Range of mountains on our left. At times we see the 
water lashing the beach, and as the train moves on the 
huge waves spend their force against the solid rocks, now 
a spur of land juts into the ocean and the water is hid- 



92 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

den ; then you see again the huge billows roll in, lash the 
shore as they have done for centuries past and will con- 
tinue for all time to come or until this "earth shall melt 
with fervent heat," and as we look we wonder why, this 
never ending and perpetual unrest of the great deep. For 
miles and miles this glorious and fascinating picture of 
nature is spread out before us until our whole being is 
filled and thrilled with the thought of the power that 
created this vast universe, of which we see a fraction of 
the whole. On this coast road we marvel at the diversi- 
fied scenery — to us there seemed an endless variety of 
nature's wonderful attributes — and as we contemplated 
why these things are the thought comes to our minds of 
how perfectly the earth was adapted for the home of the 
human race. The hills, hollows, plains, mountains, val- 
leys, rivers, lakes and oceans, all serve their purpose, 
and they vary from the lesser to the greater, yet they are 
servants of man and conduce to his life and happiness. 
And as we ponder these things over in our mind, we 
wonder why all the civilized race does not worship the 
Creator of this delightful abiding place and praise Him 
for His goodness in supplying in the material world all 
things necessary for man's happiness and comfort. And 
in the spiritual a Comforter has been sent to teach all 
things to all men who will hear and learn "blessed are 
the pure in heart for they shall see God," truly a beatific 
promise, worthy of our greatest endeavor to obtain. 

And after all, this old world will roll on through space, 
year after year, generations will come and go, the wheels 
of progress will move on, the world will be far more beau- 
tiful in appearance fifty years hence than it is today, the 
change will be far greater than in the last half century, 
for there will be many more people to make things come 
to pass. But the question comes up, will people in the 



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THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 93 

world at that time be happier, better, wiser, healthier or 
stronger; will there be greater preachers, doctors, law- 
yers, orators or statesmen? Time alone will tell. 

While our minds are busy with these thoughts the 
great engine pulsating and throbbing like a living monster 
pulls up in front of the depot at Santa Barbara, the city 
of climate and flowers. When we leave the train the 
lovely surroundings make pleasing impressions on the 
tourist. A short distance away is the Hotel Potter. It is 
situated in the midst of a floral park, with broad drives 
and walks, with many kinds of blooming flowers, shrubs 
and shade trees which make this building and park the 
most beautiful except one we have seen on the coast. 
Then we see near the railroad track beds of flowers that 
make a pleasing appearance, and the station building is 
a thing of beauty and comfort. As we go north we see 
the rugged Santa Ynez Mountains back and to the left 
of this little city of twelve thousand people. What a 
place for the poet, the painter, or, in fact, the artist of 
any kind ; here are romantic and picturesque surroundings 
and here they could get inspiration and elevating influ- 
ence. Nowhere else have we seen so many flowers ; even 
the humble homes vie with the more pretentious, and the 
mansion of the wealthy is not adorned with a fairer pic- 
ture than is seen around the home of the humble cot- 
tager — roses, roses, roses everywhere. 

''This world in which we live is mighty hard to beat — 
We get a thorn in every rose, but ain't the roses sweet?" 

We turn our faces south and walk to the beach along the 
boulevard and up to the Plaza, and with hundreds of 
other people listen to the Italian band discourse music 
that seems A) be thrown out on the channel, comes back 



94 THE I.URE OF THE PAST 

and echoes in the cliffs that stand as huge sentinels close 
to the Plaza. We are loath to leave this fascinating city 
and hope sometime to see it again and enjoy its beauty 
and climate. Our next stop is Los Angeles, one hun- 
dred miles farther east. This terminates our contract 
with the Southern Pacific, in whose care and under 
whose protection we have been transported from Ogden to 
this city. We have stopped at so many places and rode 
on so many different trains on this road that it seems 
like parting with an old friend. 

I wanted to go to San Diego. I went to the Hill 
Street Balloon Route Station and bought a round trip 
ticket via San Pedro by steamer. The agent said the 
car would leave at 9:15, so I made myself comfortable 
and watched the clock, and when the time was up I 
said to the g'atekeeper, ''What about the car to make 
connection with the steamer at San Pedro?" "Oh," he 
said, ''the car starts from Sixth and Main streets." Well, 
they missed the fare and I missed the ride on the steamer; 
who was to blame? The Santa Fe is just as sure, much 
quicker and the same price. Bidding my partner good- 
bye for a few days, I boarded a train at 2 p. m. and at 
6:30 p. m. I was in San Diego, a distance of one hun- 
dred and twenty-six miles. 

If you have read John S. McGroarty's vivid portrayal of 
the growth and possibilities of San Diego and vicinity 
you will say with me it is a masterpiece in its allure- 
ments to the unwary. I wish for the sake of the good 
people of the coast that my first impression of the vari- 
ous cities I have visited was as romantic and ecstatic as 
those who have lived here and written so much and sung 
their praises so highly. But I cannot see it that way ; 
perhaps if I had lived here longer I would see the pos- 
sibilities of this great state in a different way from what 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 95 

I do now. For argument, suppose you do raise the finest 
fruit and more of it than any state in the Union, you 
cannot live on fruit alone no more than we of the mid- 
dle West can live on bread alone ; you cannot live on cli- 
mate alone, you cannot use all the gold and silver dug out 
of the mountains in the West. What if we do have bliz- 
zards, snow and freezing cold weather east of the Rocky 
Mountains, we need it and must have it to make farming 
a success just the same as you must have rain in the 
winter to insure a crop in the spring. So be reasonable 
and let a few of the people stay in the East. I think this is 
one of the many places to come and spend the winter 
and spend one's money and to spend the remaining part 
of life, if one is so inclined. Some people say that ten 
years will be added to a person's life by coming to live 
on the coast on account of the even climate and general 
conditions that make for longevity. Perhaps that may be 
true, but who will be the judge, or how will it be proven? 
Do not try to induce the class of people to come who 
want to live ten years longer; it would be like some 
towns where a large per cent of the citizens are retired 
farmers, a good class of people, but they do not add 
materially to the business interests of a town or city. 
It is the man in the prime of life reaching out for the 
almighty dollar that makes things come to pass. 

San Diego is a good city and when we read the book- 
lets sent broadcast throughout the country and handed 
to every tourist on the trains coming in and going out 
of some of the coast cities, we wonder at the beauty, the 
splendor and wonderful resources of the city and its 
environments. It awakens feelings of admiration for the 
writer as well as the place described, and we wonder 
if our impressions will respond and we will see the real 
thing just as the writer has tried to describe it. Some- 



96 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

times the picture is overdrawn, then the difference will be 
as between a beautiful colored lithograph and a common 
black and white picture, the impression will be disap- 
pointing and the writer must bear the blame. I said to 
a city employee, stopping at the hotel where I was, ''How 
is business in this seaport city?" He said: "For two or 
three years it has been on a boom, prosperity is coming 
our way, the city has taken on new life, many buildings 
are being constructed, the streets are being improved, 
a railroad to Yuma, Arizona, will soon be completed, 
our future is bright, and with the Panama Exposition to 
be held here in a few years this city is bound to grow." 
''But," I said, "all the cities in this great country of ours 
have made marvelous progress for ten or twelve years; 
what has been the trouble here? Every place has been on 
a boom, there has been high tariff, high wages, high prices 
for everything bought and sold, and the cost of living has 
been high; there must be something wrong or this city 
would have been in the svam. Further," I said, " this 
city of yours is surely endowed with many distinctive 
features ; you have the most equable climate in the 
world, you have a fine harbor, a water supply unsurpassed, 
fertile valleys, the oldest mission on the coast. Point 
Loma, and from the looks of it one of the old-time ferry 
boats that has probably done duty as a transport on the 
Mississippi River during the Civil War, but, like the old 
gospel ship, it can carry many more over to beautiful 
Coronado, to my mind the most lovely place on the 
Pacific Coast. With all these advantages, why has this 
city not come to the front in years past?" This was his 
answer : "A certain interest controlled and owned a vast 
amount of property. It also controlled the city officials ; 
no business could be transacted without consulting the 
interest and the city died, but now it is different, new 



THE PRrSENT AND FUTURE 97 

officials are at the helm and the interest is not consulted, 
hence the change from bad to good." And I thought if 
fifty thousand people would allow an interest to run the 
city for its own benefit that the city ought to die. Yes, 
San Diego has many attractions and the tourist will be 
glad to see and enjoy its many varied attractions. 

After staying here a few days and seeing what 1 
thought was worth while, I returned to Los Angeles, the 
home of the tourist. My partner was ready to take a trip 
to 'Frisco by water, so we went to San Pedro and took 
passage on one of the steamships plying between those 
two ports. To me it was a very pleasant trip, for I was 
one of a few who were able to take the meals when they 
were ready, but when we got to the dock at 'Frisco the 
passengers were all able and very willing to disembark. 
This was our first experience on an ocean steamer, and 
we will not soon forget it. After ten weeks in the bay 
cities we stood on the docks at 'Frisco ready to take a 
steamer for San Pedro. As we passed through the 
Golden Gate we stood on the upper deck noting places of 
interest on the shore, and it was made doubly interesting 
because the captain, by the way a splendid man, to whom 
we had been introduced before leaving the dock, pointed 
out to us and told us much about the coast as well as the 
ocean. He showed us the charts made by the govern- 
ment. Three hundred miles out from San Francisco the 
water is three miles deep. The ocean has been sounded in 
every direction by the government and the greatest depth 
ever found and recorded is in the North Pacific, where it 
exceeds five miles in depth. It would take two Pike's 
Peaks to reach from the bottom of this depth to the top 
of the water. The bottom of the ocean is similar to the 
land in topography. It has plains and hills and moun- 
tains. All the hidden rocks and dangerous places along 



98 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

the coast have been found and located on these charts, so 
that the mariner may plow through the mighty deep in 
perfect safety, if he will only be guided by his chart. What 
is most feared by seafaring people is the fog, which 
sometimes causes them to lose their bearing and the 
vessel is wrecked on a hidden rock. 

The voyage from 'Frisco to San Diego is considered 
the safest on the Pacific Coast. In many places the 
largest vessels could go for miles within a few hundred 
feet of the shore with perfect safety, owing to the abrupt 
declivity of the coast ranges of mountains lying near the 
ocean. We got acquainted with the operator of the wire- 
less telegraph. He explained to us how a message from 
the land or from another vessel would be taken up by 
every wireless instrument for hundreds of miles. It is 
a wonderful invention. The signal of distress is S O S, 
and when sent through the air and caught by the wireless 
operators the vessels can go to the rescue. It was a 
pleasant and interesting trip for us and we extended to 
the captain, operator and steward thanks for courtesies 
shown us. Every passenger was able to do full justice to 
the elaborate and well prepared menu and therefore it 
it was not a money-making voyage for the steamship 
company, for they count on half or more of the passengers 
not being able for their rations. Do not fail to make 
this trip — you will not regret it. The tides and the winds 
have much to do with the pleasure of the journey on the 
vessel. From North to South is the better way. 

When you leave your home in the East to visit in the 
West, your friends will say to those who have not made 
the trip , be sure and go to Los Angeles, Long Beach, 
Pasadena and the towns in that part of the state, and 
never mention a word about any other city. We wonder 
why? After visiting ten or twelve cities on and near the 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 99 

coast, the answer is easy. After traveling four thousand 
five hundred miles, we are going to settle down for a few 
months and we have decided to stop at Los Angeles, for 
it has a home like atmosphere. 

LOS ANGELES. 

Los Angeles is the home and distributer of the tourist. 
One hundred thousand people are here six months out of 
the year; they crowd the churches, the hotels, the rooming 
houses, the Chamber of Commerce, the theaters, the 
streets, and I was going to say the saloons, but I am 
not posted on that phase of the tourists' appetite. No 
other city of its size could take care of this army of peo- 
ple ; no other city in this state or perhaps any state is 
erecting as many large buildings. They are in evidence in 
every part of the city. It is said that these large build- 
ings pay the owners a larger dividend than anything else 
in which they could invest their money. Ninety per cent 
of the citizens are from other states and act as though they 
were not ashamed of their former home. We said to a 
man from New Mexico, "This is a pretty good California 
city." "Yes," he said, "this is a good city, but it is an 
eastern and southern city." A tourist from Iowa said the 
reason that he liked it so well here is because the people 
are so friendly and sociable. He said up in San Francisco 
they call the eastern tourist "two-bit" people. That is 
equivalent to "thirty-cent" people in the East. Los An- 
geles is a city of audiences and automobiles, of beauti- 
ful homes, boosters, banks, bungalows, churches, cafe- 
terias, balloon routes and climate, and so on down the 
list, but greatest of all for tourists. 

And now can you tell why the people come here? It 
may be to prove the old adage correct, "birds of a feather 



100 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

flock together." We were not impressed with the beauty 
of the city ; it is rugged and irregular, a ten-story build- 
ing standing by a one or two-story structure does not add 
to the architectural beauty of a city. The streets in the 
business part of the city are narrow and congested, of 
course. The hill around and on which a part of the city is 
built detracts from the free and easy access from all parts 
of the city. The Court House belongs to the people of the 
county, but the Federal building, in which the postoffice 
is located is the property of the United States, so we all 
have an interest indirectly in all the Federal buildings. 
The one in this city is the limit, there is no beauty about 
the location or the building. I said to a citizen who has 
lived here for a number of years and owns much real 
estate, "Why did Uncle Sam jam the Federal building 
into the hillside when there are so many beautiful sites 
near the central part of the city?" He said: "I will tell 
you why. He had a stingy spell on him; the lot was 
donated by interested parties, and that is why it was built 
where it was and it will stand for many years a monu- 
ment to Uncle Sam's stinginess." The architect for this 
building missed his calling; the interior arrangement is 
as inconvenient as it possibly could be made, no doubt 
to correspond with the exterior in location and lack of 
architectural beauty. 

There are many sight-seeing trips out of this city, but 
the tourist, although a stranger, will soon learn the 
wishes of these very pleasant, well-mannered and courte- 
ous promoters of the various side-line trips for pleasure 
and recreation; he will join the crowd, and few indeed 
will regret the time and money spent. There has been 
a vast amount of money invested on the coast so that the 
tourist could be properly entertained, and from the un- 
limited patronage bestowed on these daily excursions one 



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THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 101 

is led to believe that the money invested brings a larger 
dividend than the same amount would in orange groves, 
dairy ranches or poultry farms. The Chamber of Com- 
merce on Broadway is the haven of rest and recreation 
for the tourist; here we find the products from every 
valley in Southern California. In the lecture hall we 
listen to the fluent and vivid description of everything pro- 
duced, as well as the cities from Berkeley to San Diego 
coming in for their share of commendation and the great 
possibility of the investor to realize fair and sometimes 
unusually large dividends on the money invested in 
either city or country property. These lectures are made 
doubly interesting and fascinating by the aid of stereop- 
ticon pictures. This is a delightful place to spend a few 
hours, a day, a week or two. We were impressed with 
the beauty of the exhibits and with the zeal and energy 
displayed on every hand by the management of this great 
institution to make it a place of information and instruc- 
tion as well as of pleasure ; it is the best ever of the kind 
we have seen. Los Angeles is indeed a wonderful city — 
its population in 1910 was three hundred and nineteen 
thousand, an increase in ten years of two hundred and 
eleven per cent, and why? As a tourist we are free to say 
the greatest incentive to homeseekers is the climate, and 
the next factor is the zeal and energy displayed by the 
real estate people, the home investment companies and 
kindred organizations in boosting the merits of their city ; 
their actions are commendable and the results gratifying. 
If the future increase keeps pace with the past, not many 
years hence and this progressive city will rank fourth in 
population in the United States, and as a matter of fact 
let us record here and now that this city deserves all it 
can get, for its moral standing is above the average, its 
street car service is unsurpassed, it has good schools and 



102 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

many fine churches, and its beautiful homes and its many 
attractions make it an up-to-date city. If you are look- 
ing for a home on the coast, we think you would be 
pleased with Los Angeles. This city is not the only one 
that boosts its climate and progress. It is an attribute 
peculiar to the state. Even in Sacramento an old vet- 
eran said, *'This is the best city in the state in which to 
live, but everybody don't think so." But all this re- 
minds us of a story : A man in San Diego had a dream — 
probably the man who lectures at the Chamber of Com- 
merce in Los Angeles. He dreamed he died, and, of 
course, went to heaven. Soon after he got there St. Peter 
came to him and said: ''Follow me." He led him to a 
large room where many people were marking on a black- 
board. Peter gave him a handful of chalk and told him 
to go to the blackboard and make a mark for every lie he 
had ever told. As he was going to the board he met a 
well known booster from Los Angeles coming away. 
"Hello, my friend, w^here are you going?" ''After more 
chalk," was the reply. 

In entering Pasadena we were impressed with the 
beauty of its location, and as we traversed its streets with 
its many fine residences and well kept lawns thought it 
a remarkable city in some ways. It has a population of 
thirty thousand people. It is located in a picturesque val- 
ley, and from the center or business part of the city on 
either hand the ground rises gradually for several squares, 
and when we stand on a plateau stretching away to the 
base of the mountains that loom up in every direction, 
standing sentinel-like around, we see the most beautiful 
of the cities we have seen on or near the coast. In loca- 
tion, beautiful homes, adornment of parks and lawns, with 
its flowers, shrubs, fruit and shade trees, it stands pre- 
eminent as an ideal city in appearance, and why not? 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 103 

With the lavish use of money any city could be made 
more pleasing to the eye. When the organ of sight or 
vision is satisfied, the impression is made on the mind 
either of the beauty or the opposite of a place or thing. 
Compared with the sense of sight, the other four are 
insignificant. What impression could the person have 
who is deprived of his sense of vision ? Could he conceive 
of the power and grandeur of a Niagara, of the sublime 
and majestic beauty of a Mt. Lincoln, of the quiet ap- 
pearance and yet mighty immensity of a Pacific Ocean, of 
the beauty of plains and fertile valleys? We pity one who 
is blind; it seems like a sad life, and yet it is better to 
see with the eye of faith than to have ''eyes and see not, 
and ears and hear not, neither understand." It has been 
said many times, and I suppose it is true, there are more 
millionaires in Pasadena than any city west of the Rocky 
Mountains. Well, they have all they desire and no douin 
are happy and contented. They have as near an Eden in 
which to live as any people on earth, and we hope they 
will prepare themselves to live in Paradise with those who 
go up through great tribulation. Hotel Raymond, 
perched on a hill and surrounded with ever-blooming 
flowers and trees of perpetual foliage, is a place of beauty. 
Hotels Green, imposing and immense, stand on either 
side of one of the business streets in the central part of 
the city, connected, as they are, by a covered cement 
bridge, twenty-five feet or more above the ground, we are 
reminded of the state seal of Kentucky, "United we stand, 
divided we fall." Busch's Sunken Gardens is what its 
name implies, hid away beyond the suburbs, perhaps two 
miles from the city's busy mart of trade. We find this fas- 
cinating and picturesque garden one in which nature has 
])een lavish in doing her part to make this place one of 
beauty and interest: but man. the child and image of 



104 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

the Creator of nature, with his energy, his will and means, 
God given all of them, sees the opportunity to make more 
beautiful nature's handiwork, and after all it is mother 
earth that gives life and beauty to our surroundings, life 
to the grass, the flowers, the trees to man and beast, and 
beauty to all things inanimate. Man must polish and 
burnish and utilize nature's bountiful resources; so in this 
garden nature has furnished the base, man has done the 
setting. It would be difficult to describe this wonder ol 
matchless and unique creation — you must see it to realize 
how much you would have missed had you stayed away. 
Why it was made, we do not know or why there is no 
admission charged at the gates we do not know, neither 
do we know why a man would furnish probably two hun- 
dred acres of land and expend hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to beautify it for the pleasure of the public, but 
we do know that this man has given to the public a pan- 
orama of exquisite loveliness by which he will be re- 
membered by more people than many who have been 
equally fortunate in acquiring this world's goods. The 
impression made on our minds of this garden is truly 
a pleasing memory. The description of this garden could 
not be told; it might be told, had one the art or skill to 
make you see it as it is ; how, as you enter the gate from 
the public road which divides the Sunken Garden from 
the Arroyo Garden, first we see an artesian well where we 
can slake our thirst with the pure, clear, cold and sparkling 
water that comes bubbling up from Nature's reservoir. 
Turning to the left we are standing on a rustic bridge ; 
looking down we see gold fish sporting in the limpid 
water ; around this miniature lake are moss-grown boul- 
ders piled one above another a distance of thirty feet or 
more and ferns of many varieties forcing their wa}' 
through the crevices of the rocks that seem to drink and 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 105 

grow day and night from the moisture of the water flow- 
ing from its subterranean channel down hill from one 
small lake to another over the toy dams until it is lost in 
the larger lake in the valley, where a fountain never tires 
sending the water into the air, and in the spray the tints 
of the rainbow can be traced as the rays of the sun kiss 
the beautiful picture ; and how to our left we followed the 
narrow walks through groves of trees and bordered with 
flowers. Parallel are the paths in direction, but not in 
fact, for as nature made the foundation, man made the 
paths to conform to irregularity of the surface, hence the 
beauty. It is a mountain fastness made into a veritable 
Grove of Daphne, and how we go down from one path to 
another by steps made at intervals in the hillside until we 
are in the valley, and how as we follow the broad smooth 
road on our left we see the zigzag arroyo or river with its 
silver thread of water, and the solid rock rising hundreds 
of feet almost perpendicular from the shore of this tiny 
river as though it would guard and protect this enchanted 
v^alley from all intruders, and how we pass under the 
shadows of the great live oak trees, whose only claim 
to beauty is their crookedness ; and how as we go up the 
hill on the wide, smooth driveway, the cliff of rocks with 
cactus of many varieties growing in the clefts of rock and 
the grove of eucalyptus bordering and overhanging the 
road; and how as we near the entrance to the Arroyo 
Garden we turn and take one long, last look as the beauty 
and splendor of this fascinating panoramic view that 
spreads out and below us like an enchanted valley, sur- 
rounded by nature's handiwork, the eternal hills. And 
how as we cross the highway and enter the Sunken Gar- 
den with its beautiful walks and drives, bordered with 
flowers of beauty and fragrance, its shade trees with foli- 
age dense and perpetual, its miniature orange and lemon 



106 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

groves, its terrace on terrace covered with velvet-like 
tawn, its Banbury cross mill with overshot wheel, slowly 
but surely turning round and round, seemingly as near 
perpetual motion as one could conceive, its concrete 
walks running thither and yon, now in the dense shadow 
of the grove, again in the bright sunlight, now across a 
ravine winding tortuous-like higher and higher, we go 
until now at last we stand on the top terrace of this most 
wonderful creation of nature and man, and as we gaze 
around, down and across we are lost in contemplation of 
the unique beauty we see on every hand. If the Arroyo 
Garden is beautiful, the Sunken Garden is superlatively 
so. There is only one Busch's Sunken Garden in the 
world and that is near Pasadena, California. Seventy- 
five thousand dollars are expended annually on this won- 
derful garden, and if the improvements and beautifying 
continues another decade this matchless garden will be 
one of the wonders as well as the admiration of the 
world. When in the garden you find comfortable seats 
in profusion ; they are a convenience as well as a source of 
comfort. The only feature of discomfort and disappoint- 
ment is its inaccessibility, having to walk a mile or more 
from the street car line detracts from the pleasure of the 
visit, otherwise it is a pleasing pastime and a source of in- 
expressible delight and beauty to the visitor. 

Next we will go to the far famed Long Beach, rightly 
named "Queen of the Beaches," a city of twenty-three 
thousand people, located twenty miles south of Los An- 
geles and on the Pacific Ocean. Land locked, but not with 
mountains, over the fertile valleys, we see in the far dis- 
tance the snow-capped Sierra Madre Mountains; looking 
seaward we see the Catalina Lsland in the distance, and 
water everywhere, even beyond the ken of vision, and as 
the huge billows come rolling in and send their spent 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 107 

force creeping- up on the sandy beach or lash the rocks 
with fury, because man or nature has dared to stop their 
onrushing course, and the spray flying upward above the 
sullen boom as a challenge of the power of the great deep, 
then the water slowly and silently returns to the bosom to 
hide under the next wave that is coming to spend its force 
against the shore; and as we look at this ever interesting. 
never ending panorama spread out before us, we experi- 
ence a joy eternal, a changing joy of which neither the 
eye nor the mind ever grows weary. To an impression- 
able mmd, it is like a dream. In fancy we could see the 
white sails of the pleasure boats and the fisherman's craft, 
the great vessels from different ports of the world, and 
once in a while the hulks of the invincible battleships, the 
tar-like smoke pouring forth from the great funnels al- 
ways ready at a moment's notice to serve their country 
and protect the land of the free and the homes of the 
brave, Avhat a lasting and pleasing impression is made on 
the susceptible mind. A harbor land locked and open to 
the commerce of the world and a beach unsurpassed by 
any on the Pacific Coast for length and breadth and 
beauty, and the city is making a marvelous growth in 
population and general improvement. It is a residence 
city in every sense of the word, the climatic conditions are 
ideal. It is a city of churches and good schools, but best 
of all it is a city without a saloon. We are glad to find 
even one city on the coast that can have good schools 
without the aid of the license money from these places 
of degrading influence. If a legitimate business, why the 
license ? A pleasing thing in this city is the public Hbrary, 
a building of beauty and comfort, situated in the center of 
the square and surrounded by a park made lovely by flow- 
ers and shade trees. It is an ideal home city and one that 
can boast of its morality, its sobriety and general tone 



108 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

of refinement and beauty. While standing at the end of 
the pier which extends out into the ocean probably a mile, 
we thought of a story some one had told us of a lady from 
the Middle West, who had never seen the ocean. She 
came to Long Beach to visit a friend. The next morning 
after her arrival her friend took her out on the pier that 
she might see the ocean in all its beauty and grandeur. 
After feasting on the sublime and awe-inspiring sight for 
a few minutes, she turned to her friend and with a coun- 
tenance indicating great disappointment and with a voice 
expressing utter indifference, said: "I thought it would 
look larger than that." 

SANTA CATALINA ISLAND. 

While at Long Beach, visit Catalina Islands; the price 
is high, but the pleasure is great. Take a trolley or Salt 
Lake train to San Pedro, a short distance up the coast, 
here you will see the land-locked and sea-walled harbor 
where the government is expending millions of dollars 
in creating a harbor for the commerce of the world. 
Take one of those magnificent steamers and in two hours 
the twenty-seven miles from the mainland to the island 
is covered and you stand on the shore of a picturesque 
ocean mountain gem, twenty-two miles long and from 
one to eight miles wide. Its highest peak has an eleva- 
tion of twenty-two hundred feet. It is a beautiful and 
enchanting spot, with its varied scenery, its smooth 
beaches, its lofty cliffs, canyons and rugged mountain 
peaks. Many are the attractions on this lonely island, 
but the one the tourist wishes most to see is a view of 
the submarine gardens through glass-bottomed boats. 
These gardens have been accurately and forcibly de- 
scribed by some writers as follows : ''Floating over the 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 109 

green and blue water in the glass-bottom boat one sees 
the goings and comings of aquatic life. Here are shell- 
encrusted rocks, fishes, red, green and gold, zig-zaging 
leisurely among the waving foliage; here are real trees 
with long branches weaving as on land by a tempest ; 
great fish of all shapes, luxuriant foliage with branches 
bearing clusters of fruit resembling olives. Leaning over 
the transparencies in the bottom of the boats, people go 
into ecstacies." Divers there are who plunge into the 
crystal water and get silver coins before they reach the 
bottom, thrown into the water by the pleasure seekers. 
The divers also go to the bottom twenty-five or thirty 
feet and bring up shells and sell them to those who wish 
to buy. Surely it is a precarious way of earning a living, 
but it is clean and wholesome in the extreme. Now as 
we leave the island the thought comes to us, what a 
Patmos or St. Helena this would make if farther re- 
moved from the mainland. It is an island famed as a 
resort for those seeking rest and recreation during the 
summer months because of its equable climate, its canvas 
city, it fishing, boating and many other features for sport 
and pleasure. 

REDLANDS AND RIVERSIDE. 

To the merchant doing business east of the Rocky 
Mountains in California fruits, the brand of these two 
cities on boxes of navel oranges sent out from either city 
is a synonym for the best of its kind in the United States, 
and the tourist who fails to see these fertile valleys cov- 
ered with thousands of acres of orange and lemon groves 
will miss one of the most pleasing sights in Southern 
California. Go with us first to Redlands, located at the 
extreme eastern end of San Bernardino Vallev. West- 



110 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

ward the valley opens into San Gabriel and Los Angeles 
valleys and to the southwest through the Santa Ana Val- 
ley to the Pacific Ocean, distant fifty-two miles, and to 
Los Angeles sixty-two miles. Redlands is surely a little 
city of delight as it nestles beneath the protecting 
shadows of the lofty mountain peaks. From the station 
we turn to the right and take a stroll up the business 
street until we come to the Smiley public library, a thing 
of beauty set in a park, whose every appearance speaks 
of culture and care. Flowers rich in beauty and per- 
fume, shrubs and shade trees of many kinds bordering 
the walks and drives make this mission style library 
building and surrounding park a feast for the eye and a 
charm for the ecstatic soul. Drawing farther away from 
the busy street, we find homes of exquisite loveliness 
smothered in bowers of roses which lead us to exclaim 
with the poetess : 

"Lift up the rose, the rose sublime, 
The sweetest flower of every clime, 
Swept tranquilly by every breeze 
Always with grace, always with ease. 
They're blooming on the garden wall 
Beneath the whispering trees for all, 
Kissed by the dew from eve 'til dawn. 
Then by the sun's rays smiled upon." 

Redlands is indeed a city of beautiful homes, both in 
architectural beauty and ornamentation. No city of its 
size, that we have seen, can compare with it as a home 
city. Now let us go up to Smiley's Heights and gaze at 
the snow-capped mountain peaks, at the vast expanse of 
orange groves, the city of delight and to us the city of a 
pleasant memory. And now we are off for Riverside, 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 111 

winding through groves of navel oranges, cultivated like 
gardens and watered by the inexhaustible supply stored 
in the reservoir. It is a land not of milk and honey, but 
of oranges, grapefruit and kindred products. Riverside 
is a city beautiful, it is the county seat of Riverside 
County, a county in which is raised grapes, citrus fruits, 
hay and grain, which is made possible by irrigation. In 
this city the mission style of architecture prevails. The 
Glenwood Mission is unique and attractive. There is no 
other like it in the world, quiet and homelike; while 
passing you wonder what it is, there is no suggestion of 
a hotel. Walk from the Arcade up the court into the 
lobby and note the quiet and homelike appearance. This 
Mission Inn must be seen to be appreciated. On the 
western side of this beautiful home city stands a moun- 
tain, bold and rugged; but that is nothing new, for we 
doubt if one is ever out of the sight of a mountain in 
California. With the ocean on one side and the moun 
tains on the other, the climate is so tempered that the 
growing of semi-tropical fruits is not a theory, but a 
reality. Up these valleys come the ocean breeze, and 
the rugged mountains check the torrid heat from the 
desert, they also release the cooling air which flows 
gently down their slopes into the valley during the sum- 
mer season, preventing excessive heat. What a wonder- 
ful supply of material nature has stored up for the com- 
fort and happiness of humanity. She is lavish in her 
benefactions, the breeze from the mountain or desert is 
as free as from the ocean and there is no monopoly or 
freezing-out process. 

But why linger around and write so much of the beauty 
and pleasing appearance of these California valley cities, 
made so attractive by flowers and shade trees, by the 
architectural beauty of the homes and public buildings, 



112 THE IvURE OF THE PAST 

broad, smooth streets, cement walks everywhere in the 
city limits, all these add to the comfort and happiness of 
a people who are living the better life. No blinding flash 
of lightning, no crash of thunder, no tornado, no blizzard, 
no phenomenon of nature to blanch the cheek or still the 
heart with fear, except a tremor or quake once in a while 
to show that mother earth is surcharged with dynamic 
force that must be spent regardless of consequences. 
And we wonder as we go from valley to valley and from 
city to city, if the people are happier, more contented and 
better than those who have the elements of nature to 
contend with and that sometime come like a blessing in 
disguise. And now as we leave Riverside, surrounded 
as it is with orange and lemon groves, the pride of the 
state and the joy of those who have made these condi- 
tions real, there is a sadness in the fact that one of her 
citizens can so far forget his mother that he will contend 
that a woman ought to work more hours in a day than 
a man. Shame on Frank Miller, the hotel man. for his 
actions in working women more than eight hours a day 
in violation of a State law. And no matter how the 
supreme court of the State decides. Miller has no excuse 
for his unlawful methods, and his actions will be an 
object of scorn and censure to all fair-minded people. 

As we came from Riverside to Fullerton we saw thou- 
sands of acres of English walnut trees and the largest 
we have ever seen. On many the branches extend from 
the body of the tree twenty feet either way while the top 
is cone shaped with dense foliage. In these valleys are 
grown apricots, olives, loquats, grapes, alfalfa, oats, barley 
and sugar beets and ornamental trees, shrubs consisting 
in part of roses, honeysuckles, poppies, palms, China 
berry trees, pepper trees and magnolias. Wonderful in 
the endless variety of its products. And now we invite 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 113 

you to take a little side trip with us ; we will not be gone 
long, about thirteen hours and a half. 

We will leave Los Angeles at 8 a. m. and return at 
9:30 p. m. Of course we could return sooner, but there 
are a few things at Mt. Lowe that we must see after old 
Sol goes to sleep out in the briny deep and before he 
shows his face above the eastern mountain. It would be 
superflous to give a detailed account of the trip from Los 
Angeles to the summit of Mt. Lowe, six thousand one 
hundred feet above sea level. A mere outline must 
suffice and will answer our purpose, which is to show 
you some of the beautiful scenery of valleys and moun- 
tains, nowhere so harmoniously blended as in Southern 
California. In making this trip you will pass the county 
hospital on the right with its great buildings like a city 
set on a hill, you will cross the trestle over the Arroyo 
Seco high above the tree tops, you will pass the ostrich 
farm, a place made beautiful by semi-tropical plants ; on 
this farm roam flocks of these monster birds, whose only 
claim to beauty is their awkwardness, and woe be to the 
person who stand in front of one of them and receives a 
kick frontward from their mulelike hoof. If they were 
trained, what marvelous football players they would 
make, you could imagine a ball flying through space a 
half mile or more. You pass through Pasadena, a eity 
of wealth and refinement, millionaires everywhere. How 
do you suppose a common everyday sort of a man would 
feel who was compelled to live in a city whose only claim 
to recognition from the world was its wealth. And as 
we see more of the world, its poverty, its unrest, its uni- 
versal longing to become rich, its greed and graft, its 
hypocrisy and deceit, its incessant clamor for pleasure, 
its ever-increasing concentration of wealth, its many vices 
and few virtues, you will exclaim and with cause. "What a 



114 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

pessimistic doctrine you proclaim !" Why not say tht 
world is growing better year after year — because 
there is less poverty and unrest, and the longing of many 
to become rich has been realized and they give liberally 
of their abundance to help humanity that is less fortu- 
nate. There is a bond of fellowship reaching across our 
continent from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the 
gulf, held together by the churches, the Y. M. C. A. and 
Y. W. C. A., by fraternal and kindred organizations. 
The effort put forth by city, county, state and nation for 
the betterment of the people in their sanitary, moral, in- 
tellectual and financial condition is far in advance of the 
conditions existing even half a century ago. Yes, optim- 
ism is the doctrine we all want to preach. It will not 
make it so by preaching it, but it will make us feel better 
than knocking on the dark side. We have digressed and 
all on account of those Pasadena millionaires, but you 
get tired hearing them exploited as though to belong 
to that class was the only thing worth while. If we have 
any desire to be rich and perhaps so, it would not be for 
the love of money, but the pleasure of giving. To give 
a blind man a dollar, a cripple leaning on his crutch a 
dollar, a woman selling papers on the sidewalk a dollar 
and to see their astonishment and pleasure would be 
worth while. How do we know if they are worthy? 
It makes no difference, we know they are needy or they 
would not stand for hours trying to sell shoestrings, lead 
])encils and papers. 

Now on the tableland we are at Altadena, with its 
homes of beauty, set in ample grounds, wide views of 
valleys and close views of rugged mountains. A little 
farther and higher we come to the poppy fields, where in 
the springtime they are like a cloth of gold, and the air 
has a freshness like the hills. Now we are winding 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 115 

among the shoulders of the mountains and skirting the 
canyons and now we are at Rubio Canyon, 2200 feet above 
the sea. We step out and look up at the long incline 
which is 3000 feet long and at the top, Echo Mountain, 
we are 1300 feet higher than we were at Rubio Canyon. 
From Echo Mountain the view is fine. Here is located 
the observatory and the great World's Fair searchlight, 
which we will see tonight. From here starts the electric 
road that winds to Alpine Tavern. This road is a daring 
feat of engineering solidly built, yet ever winding and 
twisting and turning higher and higher as it skirts the 
vast depths of Millard and Grand Canyon. The picture 
is ever changing, you grow dizzy and distracted with the 
thought of an accident which never occurs. At one point, 
by looking up and down the mountain nine different 
tracks can be seen. Now we are at the tavern of Swiss 
architecture, its setting a solid wall of granite and guarded 
by trees of dense foliage in which the birds carol and 
squirrels jump from bough to bough. You can get a 
very good lunch for one dollar ; you smile, but remember 
it costs something to transport grub up this mountain, 
just as it did the miners in '49. And now for the summit, 
the trail is three miles long and from the Alpine Tavern 
to the end of the ti;ail at the summit the elevation is 1100 
feet. You can walk or ride a burro ; however you go, you 
will be highly entertained by the novelty of the trip and 
the beauty of the winding landscape. At the summit one 
is charmed with the beauty and loveliness of the valleys 
below. It is not the immensity or the grandeur or the 
height of Mt. Lowe, but the never ending diversity of 
scenery and the wondrous beauty of nature's handiwork. 
As we stroll along the walk leading from the tavern 
around the mountain side, we are confronted with a 
unique and interesting sight. 1)ushes covered with cards 



116 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

and papers on which were the names and addresses of 
thousands of people from many parts of the world. It 
is a veritable matrimonial bureau or correspondence 
school. On many of the cards would be invitations to 
write — a pleasing and harmless diversion for the tourist. 
At 7 p. m. we take our last look for the present at Alpine 
Tavern and its picturesque surroundings, step into a car 
and slowly and carefully descend the tortuous route to 
Echo Mountain, Here we were ordered by the man in 
charge of the searchlight to follow him. He conducted 
us to the mountain side of the plateau where a small can- 
non is emplaced and it is fired to show visitors the won- 
derful series of echoes whose reverberations rumble off 
through the distant peaks in a crescendo of sound out of 
all proportion to the size of the charge. The shades of 
night are falling and now we walk ofif to the right quite 
a distance to the observatory, where we take a peep at 
the moon through the great telescope. To us the moon 
seemed cream color and cone shaped. As we gazed at 
this non-luminous body for a comparison, our memory, 
ever on the alert, flashes back to years gone by when 
church festivals were in vogue. We could see, in the 
large cake covered with icing wnth folds like craters and 
cone-shaped, a veritable miniature moon. Astronomers 
would see it in a different light, they would make their 
comparisons with stellar, solar or some celestial body. 

On the crest of the plateau is the great searchlight, 
brought from the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chi- 
cago. It has a history. '*It was made by the General 
Electric Company to demonstrate that the United States 
could rival Germany in the construction of these great 
lights." Well do we remember being seated on the grass 
near one of those quiet lagoons while we watched first 
presumably the same flashlight as the picture of Presi- 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 117 

dent, at that time, Cleveland, also Mayor Harrison and 
many others were flashed on the buildings, and all space 
seemed to be filled with brilliant light ; then came the 
spectacular fireworks, the admiration of the world. San 
Francisco will have to get up and hump herself if she 
even comes up to the standard set by the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. But to return, the 
searchlight has not lost its power, as was fully demon- 
strated by sending the light up the mountain side and 
into the canyons down to the valley onto the farm 
houses, even disturbing the chickens and making them 
fly ofif their roosts as if another day had dawned for them. 
These after-night scenes are well worth while, do not 
come away without seeing them. Down the incline we 
come, and after we are seated in a car bound for home 
we have time to think of the delightful time we have 
had. Tired, of course, but with a clear conscience, a 
sound body and mind, we anticipate rest in slumber as 
sweet and innocent as a babe. How glad we ought to be 
that one-third of our time we can live without any effort 
on our part. What a blessing is sleep ; yea, more, it is a 
luxury divine. We cannot fight the battles of life with- 
out it; we need it in our business, in our homes, every- 
where and every day, just as we need the one day in the 
week for rest from all labor, whether we spend it* in the 
worship of God or otherwise, we need the rest. If you 
are not permitted to visit Mt. Lowe, read our description 
and let your imagination take in what we have left out 
and where we have digressed from the thought of de- 
scription. We offer no excuse, as from the beginning it 
has been in our mind to drop a line from a long ex])eri- 
ence that will do you good. 

To visit the Pacific Coast and not see and inspect one 
or more of the S])anish Mission churches would be an 



118 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

unpardonable breach of the good will and kindly feel- 
ing we ought to have for old Mother Isabella for thf 
important part she played in the discovery of our conti- 
nent over four hundred years ago. Yet we fear if there 
ever was a feeling of filial devotion in the hearts of our 
ancestors for the queen, the late Cuban unpleasantness 
has caused the present generation to think of the Spanish 
nation as being usurpers and therefore not worthy of our 
consideration. However that may be, the missions are 
here and time was when they were a mighty factor in 
civilizing the aborigines of our country. 

Let us go to San Gabriel, that means Saint Gabriel. It 
is located twelve miles from Los Angeles in the San 
Gabriel Valley, said to be one of the best valleys in the 
state. The oldest orange grove in the state is found 
in this valley. Yesterday, July 13, 1911, by the courtesy 
of the owner, we were permitted to pluck ripe oranges 
from a tree forty years old. Seedlings, of course, but 
they were large, sweet and juicy. Near this grove, about 
a mile east of San Gabriel, is located the home for the 
orphans of Masons. It is a magnificent building, situated 
on a plat of ten acres of land, planted with orange and 
lemon groves, shade trees and flowers which make it a 
pleasant home for the thirty children now being cared 
for by that great order, of which we are all so glad to be 
a part. 

We want to tell you about the grape vine; it is 136 
years old. Its branches cover an area of 9,000 square 
feet; that means it covers a lot 60x150 feet. Its foliage 
is so dense that the sun's rays never penetrate in the 
summer time The fruit is used for wine and jelly and the 
crop is abundant every year. The trunk is in three sec- 
tions, but if solid it would be two feet in diameter. It 
used to belong to the Mission church, but is owned now 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 119 

by private parties, who, no doubt, harvest a good crop 
of silver as well as grapes, but it is worth the ten cents 
to go to see it. If you wish to enter this vine-clad arbor, 
give four taps on the bell and the door will silently and 
mysteriously swing open ; then you walk in and feast 
your eyes on the oldest, the largest and most wonderful 
grape vine in the United States, if not in the world. 

There are twenty-one Spanish Mission churches in 
California. The first one built at San Diego in 1769, the 
last one near San Francisco in 1796. When you have 
seen one. you have seen the counterpart of them all. 
Most of them have fallen into ruins. The ones at San 
Gabriel and Santa Barbara are the best preserved. The 
one at San Gabriel looks like it w^ill stand for centuries 
to come, and no doubt the walls will, for they are five feet 
thick from the foundation to the top and made of brick 
and mortar and plastered on the outside. Much of the 
plaster has scaled off, which gives the building an anti- 
quated appearance. As we enter this old one-and-a-half- 
story structure we see relics of by-gone days from Spain, 
others from Mexico; some worth while, many not worth 
mentioning. An old painting brought from Spain in 
1771 represents the Trinity, the Father on the right, the 
Son on the left and the Holy Spirit is the picture of a 
dove above and between the others. A confessional, old 
and worn from constant use for more than a hundred 
years. A baptismal font, made of copper, where twelve 
thousand Indians have been baptized by pouring water 
on their heads. A crucifix, probably eight feet long, with 
a wooden Messiah nailed to the cross, to be carried in 
the procession on Palm Sunday, which was brought from 
Spain in 1771. Vestments 137 years old, and they looked 
it. The old cedar doors were hung on pivots instead of 
hinges. The oldest book in the library was a Latin P>ible 



120 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

printed in 1489. Up in the belfry are iour bells, famous 
for their chimes; once there were six, but two were taken 
during the Mexican war. The kitchen joining the church 
was built by the Indians in 1719 and has a tile floor. 
Standing by the kitchen is a giant rose bush, sixty years 
old. Back of the church a few hundred yards is the 
cemetery, the surface as level as a floor, filled with slabs 
of marble and wooden markers. Many of the super- 
scriptions are illegible, and this old cemetery only adds 
to the gloom and funereal aspect of the dingy old build- 
ing, both inside and out. If old relics appeal to you, go 
and see these if you have the opportunity. 

We have given you this chapter on Spanish Missions 
because the Pacific Coast, and especially California, is 
now, has been and for all time to come Vv^ll be very 
closely interwoven with the old fathers who named the 
tOAvns, the rivers and mountains, and who in the year 
1542 pitched their tents at San Diego and proclaimed 
to the world a discovery that has meant so much to 
humanity. And now we will leave them with you ; they 
are here to stay, their rights are undisputed and will be 
respected as long as they conform to the laws of this 
great state. During the Exposition year, 1915, when 
San Diego and San Francisco will celebrate the opening 
or completion of the Panama Canal, the Spanish Mis- 
sions will be brought very much to the front, and you 
will hardly be allowed to forget that Pacific Coast his- 
tory began at San Diego. Cabrillo arrived in 1542, the 
Mission Fathers came in 1769. 

Once more, and for the last time, we invite you to take 
another trip with us ; we have kept the best for the last — • 
that is, it is the best for the money — one hundred miles 
for one hundred cents ; an all-day excursion, not tiresome, 
but pleasant and restful, made so by an experienced 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 12i 

guide in every car, who will entertain and amuse you 
from start to finish. Remember, as you read, we are not 
writing to advertise these sight-seeing trips, or the cities 
or country or people or climate or beaches or railroads 
or corporations or private business. None of these, while 
they appeal to us and are worth mentioning, some of 
the necessary adjuncts to civilization just as mountains, 
valleys, rivers, oceans and other attributes, are necessary 
in making an earth. But we are writing, as we have al- 
ready stated, with two distinct objects in view; one is 
to write a book different from any you have read, and 
the other is to give you a thought that will raise you a 
degree higher toward a better life — the only one worth 
while. Some people would not see much good in a sight- 
seeing pleasure trip, but to us it is the quintessence of all 
that is lovely and good, and that is why we want to tell 
you about them. 

One goes through Hollywood, a beautiful suburb near 
Los Angeles, through the largest oil district in the south- 
ern part of the state and on to the National Soldiers' 
Home. Here is where you see the good being done on 
this trip. We see what a grand old government we have 
and how good it is to these three thousand old war vet 
erans who make their homes here. With massive bar 
racks and numerous government buildings set in a park 
covering seven hundred acres, this place is aptly termed 
the "Old Soldier's Paradise." We asked one of the old 
veterans where these men came from, and if they were 
happy. His answer was : ''They came from every state 
in the Union, and this home is not like having a home of 
your own," How true ! And the thought came to our 
mind, ''Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home." 
But these veterans will not need a home here much 
longer. Not many years hence they will have answered 



122 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

the last roll call, and after that the next reveille will be at 
the dawn of the judgment day. It is surely a great com- 
fort and a source of satisfaction to the relatives and 
friends of these ex-soldiers to know they are so well pro- 
vided for in their old age — not only here, but also at Day- 
ton, Ohio, at Marion, Indiana, and other places. 

Now we are at Santa Monica, eighteen miles from Los 
Angeles. Nature and man have combined to make Santa 
Monica a city of rare attractions. Nature gave it its won- 
derful combination of mountain, valley, beach and ocean. 
It is one of the most beautiful residential cities of the 
Pacific Coast. The cars pass along an immense boule- 
vard for two miles overlooking the sea, and an exclusive 
attraction for the passengers on this trip is the "Camera 
Obscura." At Playa Del Rey we get a fish luncheon, and 
why not? You can sit at the table and fish out of the 
window and listen to the lap, lap of the water as it gently 
beats against the sides and under the floor of the dining 
hall. 

Next we are at Redondo Beach, celebrated not only as 
a pleasure resort, but a port of no small magnitude. This 
is the first port of call for some of the steamships south 
of 'Frisco. Here is found the largest hot salt plunge 
bath house in the world. Seven thousand bathers can be 
accommodated at one time. Fishing is a favorite pastime, 
as nowhere else on the coast do the fish bite more fre- 
quently. A little farther up the coast and we come to 
Moonstone Beach, where the fun begins. As the water 
goes out, follow, and just as you stoop to pick up a moon- 
stone here comes a wave and runs you back beyond dan- 
ger. The experiment is tried time and again ; finally a 
wave will take you unaware, soak your shoes with water, 
and then you are willing to quit without capturing any 
precious stones, and if you get any to bring home, you 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 123 

must buy them from those who have been more fortunate 
in their search. This endless round of give and take re- 
minds one of the Irishman who was digging a ditch, 
A man said to him : "Pat, why are you digging that 
ditch ?" Pat replied : "Well, Sor, I am digging the ditch 
to earn the money to buy the food to give me strength to 
dig the ditch." 

And now for Venice of America, the wonderland of the 
West; the most completely equipped amusement and 
pleasure resort on the Pacific Coast, sure enough gon- 
dolas, Venetian Villa City, scenic and miniature railways 
and the monster racing coaster, the large aquarium, the 
great auditorium and many other places of interest and 
amusement, all of which make Venice a worthy rival of 
her Italian namesake and a very pleasant place to re- 
member as our last resort before starting on our home- 
ward journey. A day spent in pleasure, amusement and 
recreation; was it a day lost? Is a da}^ of rest lost? To 
lie on the grass under the trees and listen to the murmur 
of water, and watch the clouds float under the sky and 
hear the happy song of the bird and the drone of the bee 
as it extracts the honey from the flower and communes 
with nature and nature's God is to rest and live for one 
brief day. Then back to the daily toil, rested in body and 
mind, happy and contented to do the work assigned. 

Last year we visited a factory where twenty-seven 
hundred men worked day after day from morning till 
night — great brawny men, with muscles of steel ; they 
seemed a part of the mighty machinery, working with an 
accuracy and precision that was well nigh perfect. Some 
there were of these men, whose average life was four 
years at the work they were doing. Foreigners, of course, 
but they were splendid specimens of physical manhood; 
no pigmy could stand the work for a day. We, like many 



124 THE LURK OF THK PAST 

others, are sticklers for Sabbath observance, caused no 
doubt from our zeal for the good of humanity and our 
conception of the Divine will ; but the question arises 
when we see and know of the vast army of men who work 
in factories like a part of the machinery week after week. 
is it wrong for them to go on the Sabbath day on an ex- 
cursion boat or train to find rest and pleasure, amuse- 
ment and recreation in the woods, on the lake or beach, 
in the park or the summer resort. To the one who goes 
to church and Sunday school regularly it would seem 
wicked and uncalled for, but to those on whose shoulders 
the burdens of humanity do not rest it may be the acme 
of happiness and right living. It is a present day problem 
to be solved by the individual and the family. We 
solved it long ago by learning that there was no place 
like home to rest; that one day in seven was the best of 
them all ; it was like an oasis in the desert of business 
life. We looked forward to that one day with joy and 
pleasure, because we knew there was rest in the home, 
and when men and women learn (and many have) that 
their home is a synonym for peace and pleasure and hap 
piness and virtue and rest, then the problem of Sunday 
excursions for rest will be solved and happy homes will 
be in evidence all over our land. But listen, the guide 
who has so faithfully pointed out all the places of interest 
and told the whys and the wherefores as though he never 
got tired or weary telling the same thing over and over 
day after day — but he has a different audience every day 
— he is on a par with the spellbinder and has the advan- 
tage of the preacher. Now he is making his last speech 
just before we reach the station. He says, "li any of you 
are not satisfied with your day's outing and feel like you 
have not had the worth of your dollar in sight-seeing and 
pleasure, as soon as you get off the car go to the ticket 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 125 

agent and tell him you want your money back and I will 
guarantee that you will not get it," and so endeth the 
writing of the last sight-seeing trip. And we hope you 
will enjoy reading them. Some one said, "Happinesf 
does not depend on money or leisure, or society or even 
health ; it depends on our relation to those we love." An- 
other said, 'The importance of a home it is impossible 
to exaggerate. What is liberty without it? What if 
education in schools without it? The greatness of no 
nation can be secure that is not based upon a home life." 
And so it has been ; down through the ages have come 
exhortations for a happy home life. By precept and ex- 
ample from time immemorial much stress has been 
brought to bear on the subject of a happy home life, and 
why not? It transcends every other condition. If a na- 
tion cannot be secure except it be based on a pure home 
life, then the home must be the foundation of the struc- 
ture and the most essential part. Then take heed and 
like the wise man build the superstructure of the home 
life on the solid foundation, on a rock as it were, instead 
of the sand, so that when the storms of adversity come, 
as they sometimes do, the home will be the haven of 
refuge and rest. Shut away from the world, the man 
will find in the home the sympathy he craves, the willing 
hands, the words of encouragement and, above all, the 
perfect love and trust from the companion and family 
that gives rest to the tired mind and body and peace to his 
soul. But this is possible only where there is a per- 
fect understanding and where the man makes a confidant 
of his wife in his business. In every relation of life ther* 
should be no secrets, but a perfect blending of lives, one 
into the other. Try it and note the effect. When a man 
becomes so absorbed in his business that he neglects hi^ 
home and family, when he ceases to give his wife that 



126 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

confidence and trust that is hers by right, just that soon 
will they begin to drift apart. Even when success crowns 
his efforts in the business world this is wrong; but 
should circumstances, which a man cannot always control, 
cause his suspension in business, the way is paved for a 
tragedy, the import of which is far reaching and might 
have been prevented had the family only known. We 
want to weave into the tapestry of this book a short 
story to show how unsafe and unwise it is for a man not 
to keep in touch with his family and they with him in the 
business life, in the social life and in the home life. The 
story may be true or it may not. If statistics are true that 
eighty per cent of the business men of our country fail 
sometime during life, then it might apply to one of the 
present age, for only yesterday in the Senate Chamber 
of the United States Senator Kenyon of Iowa, in voice 
prophetic, said: "We are living in an extravagant age. 
We are money mad and racing through life at a neck- 
breaking pace, piling up fortune on fortune; men with 
millions striving for more, never stopping to think that 
there is no pocket in the shroud. The rich are flaunting 
their riches in the faces of the poor. We see a hundred 
and twenty thousand dollar organ at the opening of a 
millionaire's home in New York and a long line of hungry 
men at midnight in the same city constituting the bread 
line." "Girls working in stores for five dollars a week, 
but the proprietors dying and leaving millions to 
museums. Is it any wonder that the people of this 
country are restless?" We should say not; if it is true, 
and we would not dare to dispute the word of a United 
States senator, it is a terrible arraignment. It is just 
what we have been wanting to say all the time, but we 
were afraid we would hurt some millionaire's feelings. 
Rut when we have back of us a member of the highest 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 127 

legislative body in our country we feel safe. But we will 
settle all the trouble next year at the election, and those 
money-mad millionaires will remember a lesson they 
never forget from one election to another. If they will 
contribute liberally to the campaign fund, they may pile 
up all the millions they can without fear or favor. How 
we pity those New Yorkers who have to sit up till mid- 
night to get their suppers. There is something wrong 
in Gotham, It is an overdose of prosperity or a reaction. 
We will have the senator explain the cause; we know 
the efifect. 



SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE. 

"We must give that reception, mamma," said Clara- 
"We owe so many favors, how shall we ever return them 
all unless we begin entertaining pretty soon? And yet I 
am tired of it all. I do not enjoy anything any more. ] 
feel like I would enjoy being away from it all for a whole 
year. Here we have invitations to some social function 
every afternoon for about two weeks. I do not suppose 
we can entertain for a while, and, to tell the truth, I am 
glad of it." Her mother replied : "I cannot understand 
why you do not enjoy yourself ; it seems to me you have 
everything to make you happy and contented. You are 
beautiful and one of the most popular girls in the city, 
and you have everything you want." "Yes, but it is the 
same thing over and over; parties are all very much alike. 
My friends all say about the same thing to me, and often 
I feel like I am wasting the best part of my life in this 
endless and never-ceasing round of social events for 
pleasure and amusement. I would like to do something 
worth while to make others happy, who are less for- 



128 THE LURK OF THE PAST 

tunate that we, it would be more pleasure to me than 
spending all my time in a social way. But, mamma, do 
you know what is worrying papa? He seems so changed 
just in the last few days. I wanted to ask you before, but 
have not had a chance." ''Why, I hadn't noticed any 
change. Let me think; he has seemed absorbed; I sup- 
pose in his business as usual. The only difference I can 
recall was that a few days ago he asked me if I could 
be a little more economical without depriving us of any 
pleasure, and that is something he has never mentioned 
before since we were marrid twenty-five years ago." 
'Toor papa, I fear there is something wrong. Do you 
know, mother, I feel like we were not doing our duty, 
giving so much of our time to social life and neglecting 
the home life? Only a few days ago I heard Mr. Proc- 
tor say that the financial condition of the country was 
deplorable and that a money panic was imminent." ''Lis- 
ten, daughter, I want to tell you something. When your 
papa and I were married he was a business man with 
good prospects ; we had our home, not as pretentious as 
this, but we were comfortable. I had several thousand 
dollars from my father's estate. I said to your papa, 
'Take my money and put it into your business and some 
day we will be rich,' for I had every confidence in his 
business ability, and I said, 'we will be partners in the 
store and in the home. I want you to make a confidant of 
me ; if you have trials and troubles, bring them home with 
you and I will share them with you.' And this is what 
he said : 'I think it is the wife's- duty to look after the 
home, and the husband's duty to look after the business. 
and with that understanding we will begin our married 
life.' And he said it in a way that I could not mistake 
his meaning. Now, do you wonder that I know nothing 
of his financial condition? He is a good husband and 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 



129 



father, and m a general way I know he has prospered, but 
the happiness of our married life has been sadly marred 
because he has not made a confidant of me in his' business 
attairs. And should reverses come, which I do not ap- 
prehend no one can be more willing or ready to give 
sympathy and help than your mother." 

While this conversation was going on, Mr, Hastings 
the husband and father, was seated in his private ofiice in 
deep meditation. "Why have I not the courage " he 
thought. "I can do no good by living. True, I ;ould 
make a moderate salary, but not enough to satisfy a fam- 
ily that has always been used to having every wish and 
want gratified, and I cannot face my wife and daughter 
and tell them that everything is gone-everything, and 
they W.11 have to give up their life of luxury and ease 
their beautiful home; tell them thev are penniless pau- 
pers. I can't, I can't. If I take my life I can leave them 
fa.rly well provided for, enough at least until Robert get<. 
through college; then he can help them. I will write a 
note and tell them all. It will be a terrible shock to them 
but It will be better than living in poverty." 

While he was writing, Mr. Moore came to the office 
door, receiving a response to his knock to "Come in." 
He said to Mr. Hastings on entering his ofl[ice : "Had 
you forgotten the church committee meeting? It is time 
for it now." 

The two men hurried away, Mr. Hastings thinking he 
would finish his writing when he returned. A few min- 
utes after the men had gone Robert Hastings came into 
the office on his way home from college. "I'll help my 
father a while with his correspondence, or until he re- 
turns ; then we will go home together for dinner. I know 
he will return soon, for his desk is all littered up, and 
that shows he was called away suddenly. He never 



130 THE IvURE OF THE PAST 

leaves his desk like this, for he believes in keeping every- 
thing in its place, and I knov^ he would like for me to 
help him, for I knov^ just how he wants it done." And 
thus Robert talked to himself while he was busy arrang- 
ing the desk. "Here is a letter he has begun; I will finish 
it for him. Oh, my father! What can this mean? Is 
it possible he has lost his fortune, that it is all gone ; that 
we are a family left penniless; that I, Robert Hastings, 
am a pauper? Think how I lavished money on my 
friends !" Words like these fell from his lips unconscious- 
ly, and as he read on, he exclaimed with fear and tender 
solicitude : '*Oh, it can not be that our father would take 
his life ! The loss of our fortune would be nothing com- 
pared to the loss of him. He shall not, I'll prevent it!" 
He was still at the desk when his father returned. "Why, 
Robert, are you here? You will be late to dinner." 

"When I came in," said Robert, "I thought I would help 
you with your writing, as I often do; then, when you 
came, we could go home together. I thought I would 
finish the letter you had commenced. But oh, father, 
when I read it I could not realize that it was true !" 

"Yes, my boy, it is true, and it is killing me to think 
that my family must suffer and be impoverished because 
your father has been shipwrecked in the financial storm 
that is sweeping over our country." 

"Oh, it is not that, father, but to think that you would 
plan to take your own life for our benefit in a financial 
way !" 

"Yes, my son, it was my love for my family that 
tempted me to take my life, because I could not bear to 
see them want for anything." 

"Father, can't you realize that you are more to us 
than all the money you could make or save for us? Then, 
think of the wrong you are doing in the sight of God ! 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 131 

No, you can not, you must live ! I need you more than 1 
need the money. I need you to help me to make the 
kind of a man you would like me to be. I have it all 
planned how I will make my way through college and 
help you all I can. Perhaps some day I will be, if not 
distinguished, a man that my father will be proud to call 
his son. For, you know, the greatest and best men of 
the past and present are self-made men. Some have 
worked their way through college and scaled to the top 
of the ladder of fame, while others are to the front in 
the business world. So you see, father, we are not so 
bad off after all." 

"Robert, you will never know how much you are to 
me; you have saved my life. You have shown me my 
weakness, when I ought to be strong. You have put 
new hope into me, and now I can go with you and tell 
your mother and sister, and we will begin life's battles 
again, but in a different way." 

When Mr. Hastings and Robert reached home, they 
went to the library. Robert left his father seated on a 
couch, while he went to find his mother and sister. He 
found them rather impatiently waiting to be taken out 
to dinner, for it was past the hour. Robert told them his 
father was in the library and wanted to see them, as he 
had something to tell them. They followed him into 
the library; Mrs. Hastings seated herself on the couch 
by her husband, while the son and daughter were seated 
near, that they might not lose a word of what their father 
had to say. Mr. Hastings lost no time in the sad recital, 
and in a subdued voice he told them all. How he had 
lost all his wealth, going into the minutest details that 
they might understand how it could be ; and how he had 
hoped to leave them comfortably provided for, had not 
Robert, as by a miracle, prevented him. Mrs. FTastings 



132 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

was visibly affected during the recital, but instinctively 
her hand went to that of her husband, and in that hand- 
clasp the bond of sympathy which had lain dormant, per- 
haps for years, had been strengthened by adversity, and 
they realized as never before a new life dawning, which, 
though fraught with hardships and innumerable discom- 
forts, would be holier, purer and happier than ever before. 
Clara, who had listened so quietly, while her heart ached 
for her dear father, whom she loved dearly, came to his 
side, and putting her arms around his neck, said, "Now, 
don't worry; we can live. Of course, it will be a great 
change, but think of the great number of people in the 
world who work for a living and seem to be happy and 
contented! Why can't we be?" 

And so they talked and planned together for the future, 
until Clara became very enthusiastic about what she could 
do to help her father, and Robert told of his hopes for 
success in his chosen profession, after he had worked his 
way through college, and Mrs. Hastings said : "My dear 
children, I thought at first that this was the crisis in my 
life, the decisive moment when my trouble would begin, 
but I believe it will prove a blessing. We shall learn to 
see the real purpose of life, and thus we will have more 
sympathy for others. Already we are brought nearer 
to each other than we have ever been before, and I realize 
as never before this hour, how all alone your dear father 
has been fighting the battle to keep his dear ones from 
poverty, and we all realize that he has done all he could 
for our comfort and happiness. So let us make the best 
of our changed condition, and hope for a bright and happy 
future." Mr. Hastings arose, and taking his wife's hands 
in his, said: 

"Your words have been a source of comfort to me. 
Henceforth we will be one in thought, as well as in deeds." 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 133 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE PAST, PRESENT AND 
FUTURE. 

We have observed in the past that the man who was 
in the habit of going security for a friend was always a 
loser before he made up his mind to refuse. 

That being in debt caused more worry and more sui- 
cides than all other causes combined. 

That your best friends were more willing to give you 
advice than to loan you money. 

That the man seldom marries the girl he loved when 
he was a boy, except in novels. 

That the happiest married people on earth are the man 
and wife who hide no secrets from each other. 

That the man who takes stimulants to make him strong 
physically is weak intellectually. 

That the man who frequents a saloon is not as happy 
as the man who has the will power to stay away. 

That the man who succeeds in business and has the 
most friends is the one who gives sixteen ounces for a 
pound. 

That the defeated candidate for office finds out how 
many liars there are. 

That good health and a conscience devoid of evil in- 
tent are specific antidotes for unhappiness. 

That men who own factories and pay their employes 
living wages and a per cent of the net profit never have 
any strikes or discontent. Take Proctor & Gamble, at 
Ivorydale, Ohio, as an example. 

That some people complain as much when the cost of 
living is low as when it is high, especially the farmer. 



134 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

That during the civil war the meanest men and the 
most unprincipaled were placed in authority over the 
prisoners of war, both North and South. 

That in 1855 there was only one millionaire between 
the Allegheny and Rocky mountains. 

That the preachers fifty years ago could tell as near 
where Heaven is as the preachers in 1911 can. 

That while "Money is the root of all evil," it is a power 
for doing good. 

That the civil war was the foundation on which was 
built civic licentiousness and graft. 

That many commissary officers went into the army poor 
and came out with thousands of dollars. 

That it is immaterial how a man made his money ; the 
question is, what is he worth? 

But why write of the present? It is ever with us. It 
is a matter of history today that President Taft visited 
this city yesterday, and tomorrow not even the news- 
papers can tell for sure what will come to pass. We have 
written of the past much and truthfully. We have ex- 
tolled the present as the days have come and gone, and 
tried to show you the vast difference in then and now, of 
the new thought, new religions, new politics, new pro- 
moters, new problems, new schemes, new organizations, 
new friends, new fashions, new associations, and even two 
new states. We will leave the present with you. It will 
soon be the past, and of the future we have guessed at 
just as accurately as we knew how. 

We observe that of the future we know nothing defi- 
nite. From observations of the past and present we are 
led to believe that the aim of the human family is to spend 
eternity in heaven. What or where heaven is, diflferent 
peoples have different conceptions. But the civilized and 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 135 

the savage believe it is a place where happiness and peace 
and love and contentment will fill their souls, and eternal 
enjoyment will be their portion. That they also believe 
that to reach heaven they must pass through the portal 
of death. Grim thought, is death. We don't like to talk 
aboutit, and why? Because it is inevitable. Jesus said ; 
"The Kmgdom of God is within you"; he also said: "The 
Kmgdom of God cometh not by observation," If the King- 
dom of God is heaven, and heaven is on earth within us, 
and after death another heaven, how universally happy 
mankmd ought to be! There are millions of people who 
do not believe in the teaching of Jesus. But we have ob- 
served that those who do believe are the best and happiest 
people on the earth. They have done and are doing more 
for humanity than all the multiplied millions of unbe- 
lievers in the world. That being an incontrovertible fact 
the teaching of the Master seems a safe and sane guide. 
Let us assume that heaven and hades are mental condi- 
tions—which is a popular and practical conception. Then 
may not the finite being bring to pass a part, at least, of 
that memorable prayer, the one that gives faith and hope 
and love to the whole Christian world : "Thy will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven." Many people today are bask- 
ing in an ideal heaven of happiness by their kindness and 
charity and help and encouragement to those who are less 
fortunate ; unobserved, but pressing onward, doing good 
to their fellowmen, year by year passing on to a higher 
degree ; preparing, as it were, for a glorious future beyond 
the river. Think you there is no heaven on this earth ? 
If the one beyond is ideal, why not have one here, a pre- 
paratory one, so that when the change comes it will be 
one step higher, and we do not know how many transi- 
tions there are. We may go on and on through all eter- 



136 THE LURK OF THK PAST 

nity, higher and higher in the celestial universe. By faith 
the Christian can see the heaven beyond, just as surely 
as he knows the Kingdom of God is w^ithin him. It is 
an undisputed fact that believing a thing is so does not 
make it so, and yet we must have some thought or some 
belief in the mysteries of the future. As for this life, wt 
know that when we have done an unselfish act there is 
a feeling of happiness that thrills our being, and when we 
realize the fact that the brotherhood of man is real, in- 
stead of a theory, then we will know the significance of 
the greatest commandment, to "Love God with all your 
heart, and your neighbor as yourself." This can be at- 
tained by right living; then the future life will not seem 
like a leap in the dark, a thundering Niagara, a very in- 
ferno of carnage, like a Gettysburg; but a quiet, calm and 
peaceful passing from the life that now is to the one be- 
yond. As observations of the past come to the memory 
of the one who has lived the allotted three score and ten 
years, there is no illusion about that life. Grim reality 
has marked the way, ever onward to the goal of human 
destiny — the end of mortal life. To some, no doubt, a 
retrospect of their past life would bring sadness, rather 
than joy. To others it would bring peace to their souls 
like a divine benediction or a heavenly amen. But the 
aged pilgrim at the sunset of life, while he waits for the 
dawn of eternity, lives over and over the past life. His 
mind is not centered on events that make history, nor 
on the incidental happenings in the world in which he has 
lived so many years. It was not of the people he was 
thinking, a vast majority of whom were trying to make 
an honest living for themselves and families. Not of 
politics, with its impurity and its uncertainty. Not of the 
saloon, race, or social problems. Not of the increasing 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 137 

ratio of divorces. Not of the few men who control the 
finances of our great country. Not of the fact that there 
are three million more Christian women in North Amer- 
ica than men. Not of the great multitude of men and 
women who think only of pleasure and sinful indulgence. 
Not of those who commune with nature and nature's God 
and believe that man is the greatest asset in the universe, 
and that his liabilities to his creator can only be canceled 
by his daily service. None of these thoughts nor any 
others of vital interest to the world are given prominent 
place in his mind. But the memory of his own life is like 
a harp with a thousand chords. Some are lost, others 
bring sweet music to his waiting soul, while others bring 
discord and sorrow and even shame. If he could go back 
in reality, as he can in memory, and live over again those 
years that have been woven into the history of his life! 
Methinks I hear the aged pilgrim, in trembling accents, 
say: If I were a boy again, my life must be pure and 
good and noble. No stain must blot or mar the character 
bequeathed to me by a devoted mother, who is my in- 
spiration through life. 

Now there is silence in the memory of the aged pil- 
grim. It would be a sacrilege to disturb him while his 
mind lingers on, to him, that beneficent being, mother. 
Sacred is her memory, not only to him, but all the chil- 
dren of men respond in sympathy and love and devotion 
to that word, the primordial principle on which our char- 
acters have been built. 

Mother and wife — synonyms for love and joy and peace 
and happiness, and all that makes life worth living. Again 
the old pilgrim rouses from the long silence, and for the 
last time before he launches out on the ocean of eternity, 
he speaks of what might have been had he known the 



138 THE LURE OF THE PAST 

future as he now knows the past. Not in tones of regret 
or disappointment did he talk. He spoke of his failure 
and success, of the dark and bright sides of his life, of the 
folly of intemperance and riotous living that destroy the 
mind and fill the body with pain and disease. He spoke 
of his mother in loving tones, of his childhood and boy- 
hood days, of his school and college days, of his tempta- 
tions, of his struggle in the business world, of the time 
when he gave his life to his Master in his young manhood 
days and promised to keep His commandments. But 
when he spoke of his wife there was a look of sadness on 
his face. But as he told of the forty years they had trav- 
eled hand in hand along life's sometimes rugged pathway, 
and then again along the flower-bordered walk of happi- 
ness and joy and trust, there came over his face a look 
of resignation, mingled with pity and love. After gazing 
ofif into space with tear-dimmed eyes, he finally said : "Yes 
at the age of sixty-two, just when the best part of life 
had begun for us, He took her home. I am waiting pa- 
tiently the summons to go there too." Then he repeated 
this beautiful poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, gathered 
a little grandchild into his arms and crooned a lullaby : 

'Tis yet high day, thy staflf resume. 

And fight fresh battles for the truth ; 
For what is age but youth's full bloom. 
A riper, more transcendant youth ! 
A weight of gold 
Is never old. 
Streams broader grow as downward rolled. 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 139 

At sixty-two life has begun; 

At seventy-three begin once more; 
Fly swifter as thou near'st the sun, 
And brightest shine at eighty-four; 
At ninety-five 
Should'st thou arrive; 
Still wait on God, and work and thrive. 

GEO. W. BRYAN. 
Los Angeles, CaL, October 17, 1911. 



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